Fathers Are Shield Bearers

   My sons are 5 and 3, and they are every bit the adventurers John Eldridge describes in Wild at Heart. Young men who are bent on looking in every hole, climbing every obstacle, finding every bug, walking every path. My oldest, Caedmon, has a love for bugs. He loves catching butterflies and finding ants in holes in the yard. Every day we play outside and when we are done he walks over to me covered in dirt. He rolls around on the ground looking for bugs and when the wind blows he looks like pigpen from Peanuts.

   But despite their adventurous attitudes they hate, with a passion, spiders. Every time a spider shows up they yell and run around in circles. And every time they yell, regardless of how far away I am, they come get me. I could be 40 feet away and they run to me begging me to squash the spider before anyone "gets bited". And I gotta admit, it feels good.

   It feels good when they are too scared to kill the spider, when a big dog barks at them and they cling to me, when its thundering and they want to sit next to me. It feels good when my wife hears a noise at night and regardless of me telling her what the noise is, I still must go and bravely ward off the creaking door or fan left on. And I dont think you will find a father or husband who says otherwise.

1 Cor. 16:13 says "Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong." Paul speaking to men here.

   I am all for woman power and Sarah Palin running for office, but women were not asked to be the towering figures of strength that men are required to be in the bible. Our greatest heroes of faith were warriors. But as men we must understand why we have this strength and not abuse it. God did not make men strong and brave so they could be slave drivers or task masters to those they love. They were given strength so they could protect their families, be it physical or spiritual.

   I think the primary job of Godly men is to hold a shield in front of his family. The New Testament says that with our shield of faith  we quench all fiery darts of the Enemy. Can we hold a shield that protects others while we are standing behind them? No. As men we must protect from the front. Be in the front. Lead. Take your shield in one hand, and your family in the other, and drag them through the fiery hell of the Enemy. Proverbs says a leader leads through diligence. It is our watch men, fathers, husbands. We lead the way but we dont lead to be in charge, we lead to serve. We lead to be the protector. We carry the shield of faith in front of our families because it is our rightful place in this Kingdom.

   Is there an arrow wound in your family? Has the Enemy hurt your wife or children? We as men carry the first responsibility of asking ourselves "Where have I failed to exercise my faith? Where have I not watched?" I encourage you to exercise strength in love and knowing that if we fail we have a Savior that is faithful. Be like Him and charge through the hell of the enemy, facing it head on, carrying your shield of faith and your family.

Why obedience is important

   1 Samuel 12:14
   If you will fear the LORD and serve Him, and listen to His voice and not rebel against the command of the LORD, then both you and also the king who reigns over you will follow the LORD your God.

   Obedience is huge. We look at the New Testament and we know that God's redemption has switched from the law to mercy, salvation, and grace. But when we look at this in the wrong light we can miss some things that God still places a great emphasis on such as the fear of the Lord, service, and obedience. Those principles have not changed, but what empowers us to do these things has.

  
   The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, says proverbs, and it is so true. The fear of the Lord is a healthy recognition of the depth of holiness and power that our God has. I do not fear His presence, because He is my Father. But I do understand that not until heaven will my mind be able to comprehend all of who God is. Even the angels, who have been with Him through all of eternity, still stand around His throne crying Holy, Holy, Holy! without ceasing.

   Our healthy fear of God starts in worship. We honor Him for who He is. If the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, then worship is our classroom.

   When reading this today the Holy Spirit impressed on me that serving, in this scripture, came before hearing. You may not hear God when you have a choice to make. As frustrating as this is, He is teaching you two things. Firstly, He is reminding you of what He looks like. When you are facing a choice between doors 1,2, and 3 and God isn't telling you which to walk through, can I suggest that one of those doors looks more like God than the others? That one of those options is more in line with what He has already spoken into your life?

   Second, partnership. You see God doesn't need us to be God. But He has loved us so much that He has made the world vulnerable to the partnership that we have with Him. He will not accomplish things without us, He decided that. So one of the lessons He teaches us is that we are allowed to dream with God, to follow Him by doing what we have always dreamed of doing because some of those dreams are His that He has placed inside of His children. What Father would encourage His child to dream and then crush those dreams when they begin to pursue them?

   The fear of the Lord and service prepare your heart for obedience. Obedience is important because a rebellious heart may be able to hear the voice of the Lord, but it will always miss it's target. God does not speak the depths of His heart into a disobedient heart because that heart can never wrap itself around His truth. Perfection does not ask chaos to carry out His will. When our heart is in rebellion, it is in a state of anarchy and chaos. Rebellion is as a sin of witchcraft the bible says. Witchcraft is us surrendering our will to something or someone other than God.

   Obedience is not the requirement of a legalistic God who with holds favor based on how hard you work. Obedience is necessary to know the perfect will of God. If God spoke a word to a rebellious heart that demanded obedience, then that word would crush them because they would not have the ability to carry it out. "I have failed God again" they might say. This would cause more pain and destruction in their lives. God with holds things from rebellious hearts for their own good.

   Know how awesome God is, serve Him out of friendship, and obey His voice. This is what following Him looks like.

A contradiction of realities...

Exodus 3:1-4.

    Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. ² And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. ³ And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” ⁴ When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”

   All through Moses' life there were contradictions. He was born a slave and  became a prince. Babies were wiped out by Pharaoh for fear of a great leader, but Moses was sent away and saved by the family of Pharaoh and tutored by a powerful leader. He was a prince who became a murderer for a race of slaves. All very strong contradictions. And here Moses stands, being ushered into his destiny, by another contradiction. A bush, on fire, and not destroyed.

   I am amazed at how often God uses something that should be falling apart to rescue me. How He takes what seems to be the insignificant and turns it into the most important thing in my life. I think that something as lowly as a scrub brush on the side of a mountain would be a poor billboard for the great leader of an entire nation.

   The idea was to show Moses another reality. In Moses' reality when a bush was on fire it was consumed. But when a bush was on fire in God's reality not only does it not burn, but it talks to you. A snake is not a staff, but in God's reality a staff is a snake and a warning to the greatest military power in the world to release it's slaves.

   In your reality you shouldn't be able to pay your bills. Your sickness should not leave. Your home should not sell. Your family should fall apart. Your calling should never happen. Your happiness wont return. You should be depressed, weary, struggling, broken, pitiful, self absorbed, fearful, or weak. 

   But God's reality looks very much different. He may not have broken your life, maybe you did that all on your own. But your brokenness is His bush. And as on fire as you might feel, you are a sign and a wonder to the world because you are not consumed.  And more than this, you are being led into His perfect purpose for your life.

  The only difference between a bush in the middle of the desert and a bush that fulfills the perfect will of God is the Presence of Someone who radiates purpose and wonder. You, little lonely scrub brush, can inspire nations if you let that fire rest on you. 

Miracles and how to see past inprisonment...

Matt. 11:4-6
"And Jesus replied to them, Go and report to John what you hear and see:
    ⁵The blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed (by healing) and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up and the poor have good news (the Gospel) preached to them.
    ⁶And blessed (happy, fortunate, and to be envied) is he who takes no offense at Me and finds no cause for stumbling in or through Me and is not hindered from seeing the Truth."

John is in prison. Placed there by an adulteress ruler and his mistress. He is about to be beheaded and he knows it. The man who Malachi, Isaiah, and Jesus all proclaim as the greatest among the prophets has an incredibly short ministry career before he sees prison.

By this time, John has already not only publicly confessed that the Messiah is coming, but has made the proclamation publicly that Jesus is the Son of God, followed by a confirmation from God the Father Himself.

John's question here is not a theological one. He knows the scriptures. He knows the man, Jesus. He knows the voice of the Holy Spirit quietly confirming inside him that Jesus is the Christ. John's question isnt about theology, John's question is a question of his heart, brought on by circumstance. "If YOU are the Christ, like I told EVERYBODY you were, then why am I getting BEHEADED?!?"

John's prison was an emotional state just as much as a physical location. And when he sent his disciples, the ones that always fasted more than Jesus' disciples, who had been in ministry longer than even Jesus had, they got this answer that didn't appeal to John's emotional weakness. It was a simple rehearsal of what Christ had accomplished with an admonition which, at this point, might have sent John over the edge. "I know your upset, but I am busy, and you will be fortunate if you don't trip over Who I am and what I am doing." I might get mad at this answer. But John did not. It was enough for John. Why? How?


It comes back to one simple point that burns inside of me and I believe inside the heart of Christ Himself. Miracles expose the heart of God. Healings. Resurrections. Deliverances. Preaching good news to the poor. These things show the heart of God. When John couldn't see past his cell block for all his cares, Christ spoke to him of miracles. John didn't need to hear about the success of Jesus' ministry so much as John needed an answer to his question "did I make the right choice?". Jesus gives him a resounding "yes".

I am challenged by this verse to show others in prisons made of steel, memories, and sin, that Christ is the right choice. We can do this by exposing the heart of God through the hand of God. While praying for the homeless I seen a woman's knee heal progressively while I prayed. It is one thing to tell her of the love of her Father, it is quite another to have enough faith to do His will on earth. To do His will is to expose His heart.

The miraculous things of God are an immediate answer to questions that have held us in bondage for most of our lives. When God whispers "I am your Father" then years of brokenness and heartache for the fatherless disappears.

Step out in faith. Heal the sick. Raise the dead. Cast out demons. Preach the good news.

P.s. Christ usually healed and then preached the Kingdom. Its easier to get people to acknowledge there is a Kingdom once you have put it on display. :)

Restoring Fathers for the Orphans and Widows

   85% of all men sitting in prisons across this nation grew up in fatherless homes, according to recent surveys conducted by the Texas and Georgia Department of Corrections. 85%. I worked corrections at a local jail for a number of years and can testify to this fact. The stories of broken homes, fathers incarcerated who wanted to see their families again. Men incarcerated who had never met their fathers. It was a very common story.

   In the current church fatherless wave across the US, we are beginning to see churches do a decent job with orphan care. I would say that statistically the church is still having a hard time figuring out how to really care for the widow, if they attempt it. I am blessed to go to a church where the single mothers are helped and cared for very well, and I think churches across the US are starting to make a shift to truly help single mothers and widows.

   But as well as we may be beginning to do both of these, we must ask ourselves what the best possible answer for caring for the widow and the orphan is physically, spiritually, emotionally, and mentally. While money, housing, food, and clothing are all necessary, there is a deeper issue that has yet to really be addressed. Restoring fallen fathers.

   We get our perception of God the Father from how we know our own father. Wives can begin to understand Christ even more as they see their Godly husbands caring for them biblicaly and in love, as Christ cares for His bride the church. We must meet the physical needs of widows and orphans, but we must also meet the "father need" in our society. To hand out food, money and coats but not fill the void that a fallen father has left is unbalanced and irresponsible.

   Restoring fallen fathers is the most dynamic way to minister to the community wide issues of the widow and the orphan. I believe the term widow can apply to single mothers as well. When men fail miserably their whole world around them can fall apart. Family dynamics, spiritual growth, financial provision, and protection are just some of the things that take a hit in the absence of Godly men leading biblicaly and in love.

   I feel we have missed it. We can grow the men in the church, and that is important. But intentional discipleship and outreach to the fallen fathers has taken a back seat to other methods of strengthening families. If a father fails we will praise and support the widowed and the orphaned for their faith, and that is so necessary because it is central to the gospel. But it is wrong to take an unbalanced approach. God never intended for us to leave a fallen father behind. It is unbalanced to support the families that a father has broken, without ever once trying to restore that father to the man he was always meant to be. A Godly father is a powerful resource to his family, church, and community. If we allow him to stay broken and left behind then we are throwing away one of God's gifts to His people.

   Restoring fathers really begins with a love for broken people and a vision for your community and nation. Your community is a complex organism made up of many cells. Universities, police departments, hospitals, businesses, churches, and the list goes on. But the basic institution, the one that God created in the beginning, the one institution that affects everything in your community, is family. And families were always meant to be led by Godly Fathers. The mother has her place certainly, but she reaches her full beauty and potential when she is married to a Godly leader.

   If you want to impact a community, restore the fallen fathers in your community. So, how?

   I can tell you that your local jail is the richest soil for this type of ministry. Local jails contain the fathers and the fatherless to a great degree. I have ministered to 50 year old orphans. Does that sound strange to you? It shouldn't. A 50 year old man without ever knowing his father can have the same issues as a 5 year old orphan. Unloved, undisciplined, unprotected, not provided for, no appropriate example of strength. That last one is huge. Do you have a problem with local gangs in your community? You are dealing with a group of ,largely fatherless, young men who have never seen an appropriate example of strength or authority so they rape and kill and destroy to prove they have the manhood that a Godly father should have told them they have all along.

   I could throw statistics like 63% of all child suicides happen in fatherless homes, but there are so many troubling statistics that it would take quite a while to go over them all. There are two approaches to these issues. Restore the fatherless, or restore the fathers. For most of us one looks noble, and one looks like a waste of time. But God loves that broken father as much as he loves the orphan or the widow. It is never either/or. We must show the fatherless the love and provision of their heavenly Father, but also restore fallen fathers to the position of Godly leaders in their families and communities to be strong examples of Christ to the world around them.

   If your church does not support a local jail ministry, can I ask you to examine the reasons why? Restore a father, and you have a great ally in restoring that family. If you restore families then you restore communities. And restoring communities leads to nations that are discipled by Godly men and women.

You are not perishing....

Matt. 8:24-27

^"24 And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being covered with the waves; but Jesus Himself was asleep. ²⁵ And they came to Him and woke Him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing!” ²⁶ He *said to them, “Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?” Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it became perfectly calm. ²⁷ The men were amazed, and said, “What kind of a man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”"

   Its easy to just read through this story. We have heard it 100 times, seen it on the cheesy flannel boards in VBS 100 times. Heard our faith called into question in 100 different sermons through this scripture. But I think that this scripture, as in so many, there is a nugget hidden that we often miss because of familiarity.

  
   There is a very odd, striking contrast in this scripture. To sum it up we might say there is a storm, a sleeping Jesus, a lack of faith, and then a Savior who controls the elements. We hear it taught that Jesus had no fear of being killed from this storm so He was asleep. I totally agree with this. But if this is true, why did He stop the storm???

   Ever thought about this? They were perfectly safe. Jesus was there. They were not going to die. Nothing bad was going to happen. So why did He chide their faith and then stop what was causing them doubt? As a father, I would leave my kids in the situation that they had no reason to be afraid of until they seen that they need not fear.

   I took my son, Oliver, on our front porch during a thunderstorm so he could sit in my arms and watch the thunder and lighting. He seen that it was nothing to be afraid of, but that it was kind of cool. He may like storms as much as me. But the point is that I sat with him there until he seen he was going to be OK.

   So why didn't Jesus? I think the answer is pretty simple, though Ive missed it in the past. Jesus didn't rebuke the storm because he was tired and wanted to get back to bed. "If these grumbling, faithless disciples would leave Me alone I could sleep, so I guess Ill just make this storm leave to get some shuteye." But I also don't think He did it because they needed to see the supernatural displayed. They had just gotten back from a whirlwhind healing/deliverance revival where countless where healed and delivered of demons.

   The point, I now believe, is found in the disciple's statement "We are perishing." I honestly believe, as I am sure you do, that Jesus knew they would be fine even with the storm. But the disciples didn't. They were scared. Jesus may have questioned there little faith, but He also wanted to reveal His heart.

   You see, you and I are never perishing. Not ever. As believers who walk close to our God, nothing can touch us. For me to put the scriptures up that confirm this, well it would just take too long. Every fear is a lie. Every time we are anxious it is a lie. Every time we are scared or intimidated it is a lie. The peace inside of Jesus was His reality, not the storm outside. He made that peace the disciple's reality because of His love for them.

   "You are never perishing." Jesus says in so many words, and then proves it. He is not the strict school master who demands perfection, but instead He is the loving Savior that says "This storm may be reality, but My love for you is Truth." You are never perishing. He loves you too much. Don't doubt His love. He didn't wake up to prove His ability, He woke up to prove His love.

   You are not perishing. Ever.

Waiting on a promise

   Taking a que from one of my favorite St.'s in history, St. Ignatius of Loyola, I decided to spend Easter time meditation on scenes from scripture about Christ's resurrection. While doing this I had one scene in particular stick out and I wanted to share it.

   Let me start by giving you an idea of what this type of prayer is. Pretty much it is reading a scene from the bible and then imagining the scene. The way the scene would look, smell, or feel. The noises, the people and dress, time of day. And then the general attitude. Is it a tense scene, joyous, peaceful? Then place yourself in that scene. Interacting and being a part of the scene unfolding. Why would you do this? It is simply an exercise in hearing God.

   I had imagined the scene of Mary at the tomb. I read the scripture on this and seen that Peter and other disciples, when they hadn't found Christ, left the scene before Mary. I though the Lord would direct my thoughts to stay  and see an empty tomb. But, as usual, He was much cooler than that.

   I imagined I left the scene with Peter. We walked at first, then we began to run as I sensed that the local Roman guards might be looking for disciples. Suddenly (at this point the Lord was directing my thoughts and showing me pictures) I stopped under a tree on a bench and wept. God was directing my imagination now. I was so unnerved and upset at the fact that Jesus had died, but now even more so that Jesus' body was gone. It was like insult to injury. First the Roman's proved they could kill Him, then that we, the disciples, couldn't even control where His body was laid to rest.

   I had given up (oddly mirroring a part of my life at the moment) and Christ showed up next to me. Now, if you have read the accounts of Christ after His resurrection you will recall that most did not know it was Him until He spoke. Even now, we know Him by His voice.

   He sat next to me. He put is arm around me and touched my chest. He asked what was wrong and I said "Jesus has died and now we are left alone." Not realizing that it was Him sitting next to me.

He said "What have you heard in here?" The hand touching my chest was pointing inside of me.

I said "That You would rise in three days."

I see Him, then, with this look on his face of expectation. Waiting for me to realize that it is the risen Christ that is sitting next to me. I turn and He hugs me. The scene ends.

If you are waiting on a promise you must constantly remind yourself of the words He has spoken to you. What He has promised you. Many times we just need to wake up to the fact that He is fulfilling His promises while He is waiting for us to wake up.

Miracles are simply expressions of love.....

Matthew 7:15-23

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

    15 “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? 17 So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 So then, you will know them by their fruits.

   21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many [d]miracles?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’ If you know me much at all you are familiar with my very strong belief in the necessity for works of power to be demonstrated through a believer’s life. As followers of Christ we need to be experiencing and performing the miracles Christ told us to. We should be healing the sick, raising the dead, cleansing lepers and casting out demons. Not figuratively, but actually.

   Placing such a great emphasis on doing these miracles that we miss the heart of God is an easy trap to fall into. You can do these great works and miss the heart of God completely. Knowing this should drive us to ask ourselves two questions….

   Firstly, why am I not seeing these things happen in my life? KC, I pray for the sick and none are healed and I have never even seen a demonized person in my life so how am I supposed to deliver them? The scriptures above say that even men with wrong motives can perform these things, so how is it I am not? The answer is faith. God has promised you the Kingdom, and honored that promise so much, that faith is the only requirement. Who are you in Christ? You are a child of the King. The Kingdom is His, so that means it is yours. You can bind and loose all things pertaining to the Kingdom of God. Those two words in the bible, bind and loose, are better translated “forbid” and “release”. You can forbid the things of the Enemy and release what is inside of you, the Kingdom of God. It is a fact. Period. I cant tell you why this doesn’t happen every time we pray because there can be many reasons but as a great pastor has said, when you don’t see the miracle you cant allow your experience to dictate your theology. What you believe about healing cant be changed by failure. If you don’t see the miracle then go to your secret place and cry out until you start to see them. But what about those who need a healing and I miss it? That leads us into the second question....

   The second question is “What is the will of God”? According to the verses above not everyone who is moving in the gifts of power are doing the will of God. The scriptures above say that the difference between bearing good fruit or bad fruit is that you must follow the will of God. But KC, you ask, I thought you said that healing and deliverance IS the will of God? No. Seeing people healed and delivered are EXPRESSIONS of the will of God. The will of God is love. In the NASB, the most literal translation, V.23 says “depart from Me, you who practice LAWLESSNESS”.

   Matt 22:37-40 tells us that all the law and prophets hang on two laws. Love God will all your heart, soul, and mind and to love your neighbor as yourself. If you want to stay in New Testament law, then you only must love God completely and without reservation, and your neighbor love as yourself.

So to answer your question the will of God, the perfect will of God, is love.

   This also tells us what to do for those who we don’t see healed or delivered. If I cant release healing and see a person healed, then I will make sure, without a doubt, that they know God loves them. And even if I miss the mark and for whatever reason the deliverance doesn't happen, they will know that I love them.

   Love God, then love others, then express that love. Moving in healing and deliverance doesn’t make you any better than those who don’t think they can. Because we all can. Let miracles in people’s lives only be done to express the love of God for them and you will be bearing the real fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control…..

Intimacy Exchanged

   About two years ago the Lord began to transform my prayer life with praying in tongues daily. It was amazing. While praying like this I was charged up spiritually and seen in the Spirit things the Lord wanted me to know. It was so powerful.

   So I began to look at the benefits of tongues in the bible and read books on it and became fairly knowledgeable about what tongues can accomplish in private prayer. One day I read a minister write that if you prayed an hour a day in tongues you will have deep intimacy and revelation. I then thought “If I pray like this, I will have these blessings.” Once that thought entered my mind I manipulated my prayer time with tongues. I turned my prayer time into a religious work that did not accomplish anything.

   My revelation ceased and intimacy was hindered. I said all that to make one short point. What God gives you for intimacy can be manipulated by our knowledge of Good and Evil (tree in the garden) into a religious formality. Relationship becomes work as Mary and Martha switch roles. 

   Pursue intimacy with God. Not only will you get what you want, you will want things you didn’t know you could get.

Changing jail/prison culture Part 1

I wanted to let a great article from "The Voice" magazine speak for itself....

Prison ministry - Apostolic prophetic prison ministry - Setting The Captives Free



Apostolic and prophetic prison ministry is not only seeing the captives set free - it's seeing the captives saved, delivered, filled with the Holy Ghost and prophesying.

"We had a rapist murderer in one of our meetings," recalls Pastor Jonathan Medley of Holy Light Deliverance Church in Columbus, Ga. "We sang a prophetic song and gave him a prophetic word and it touched him. He came up to the altar, gave his life to Jesus and got delivered from demonic oppression. Today he is active in prison ministry and is the strongest prayer warrior in his ward."

Prison ministries are rising up across the nation to set the captives free. They know that Jesus did not come to call the righteous, but sinners. They know that Jesus did not come to condemn the world, but to save it. And they know that the prisons are a vast harvest field with millions of lost souls.

Indeed, prison ministry is more vital today than ever. United States prisons are filled with some 2.1 million prisoners, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. The number of prisoners is rising 3.4 percent each year, with an estimated 488 prison inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents. In fact, more than 6 million people are currently incarcerated, on probation, or on parole in America.

Multiply those figures on a worldwide basis and it is clear to see the need to visit those who are in prison with some Good News. With a keen understanding that many prisoners are eventually released back into society - even those who have committed violent crimes - prison ministers are zealous about reaching them for Christ before the devil has an opportunity to use their lives to kill, steal and destroy anymore.

"Without a moral and spiritual change of heart, released inmates will likely return to temptations, associations, and activities that stimulate criminal actions," says Chuck Colson, founder and chairman of Prison Fellowship, a prison outreach and criminal justice reform organization in Lansdowne, Va. An aide to President Richard Nixon, Colson served time in a federal prison on Watergate-related charges. His experience left him with a passion to target the root causes of crime with faith-based programs.

That's one thing prison ministers have in common: a passion to reach society's persona non grata with the Word of God. Let's face it. God is not always going to give you a prophetic word that brings a murderer to his knees. Getting through to lost souls behind steel bars requires a different approach than sharing God's plan with a wealthy real estate investor, a rebellious teen or an average American housewife. Reaching illicit risk takers demands persistence, transparency, and an understanding of the criminal mind, knowing that these convicts donning county blues crave peace of mind as much as literal freedom.

"People who have been in prison two or three times are the easiest to reach," says Richard Bland, co-founder of United Prison Ministries (UPM) in Verbana, Ala. UPM visits ministries with the Gospel and leaves them with spiritual materials. By providing them with spiritual food, he believes the Holy Spirit can change their hearts. His mission is to give them a choice.

"I tell them to try my God for 90 days. If they aren't happy, I tell them, they can take their misery back if they want to," Bland says. "When you give them the truth head on - what the Bible says - instead of preaching to them, they'll listen. They are risk takers. They have nothing to lose."

One of Bland�s tactics is to ask the question �Who committed the first sin?� Most people say Adam and Eve. So he takes them to 1 John 3:8, which shows them, �He who does what is sinful is of the devil because the devil has been sinning from the beginning.� That simple exercise breaks through the �I already know this stuff� mentality that keeps them in deception, Bland explains, and they begin to realize that much of what they thought they knew about Jesus isn�t true. From there He shares the Word of God and the plan for salvation. The Holy Spirit takes over and miracles of rebirth cause angels in heaven to rejoice.

�Prisoners don�t want someone to talk high and holy to them. They want pure honesty. When we provide them with that honesty they open up,� Medley affirms. �You have to mingle with the prisoners, listen to them when they share about their lives and truly minister to their needs � not just preach a sermon and get out of there. They�ve seen too much of that already. It�s not about doing a good work. It�s about changing lives.�

Grace, Truth, and Presence

   I was listening to an amazing round table event from The Cobblestone Project here in NW Arkansas for an event called Present in the City. http://www.cobblestoneproject.org/ (you can listen online) and they were speaking about Grace. The Lord actually stopped me in my tracks because He had spoken to me while journaling about a week ago on the subject of Grace. I want to share what He shared with me and then unpack it for a bit.

  

    “Before you are a man of significance you must be a man of Grace. Grace is imparting the presence of one who is holier than yourself………Be holy as I am holy. Be pure as I am pure. By Grace. “

How do I receive more Grace?

  

    “By honoring the grace you have already received”

   How do I impart Grace?

  

    “By helping them get free. I am able to be in their lives more the more places I am allowed. Freedom is a function of Grace.”

   Present in the City brought up an interesting topic of walking the line between Truth and Grace. It was mentioned that there is often a tension (created by man) between Truth and Grace. We can see this in conversations with people who are bound to some addiction. You want to tell them that they need to get off the stuff, but you also want to tell them that God loves them and is totally willing to forgive. That they should be holy, but that God loves them if they are holy or not. If you have ever had a conversation like this then you feel the tension.

  

    I believe when God gives us Grace what is happening is He is showing up. I think we only really know the Truth when He speaks. We need Grace to look like God. But we also need Truth to know the will of God for our life. The words that Jesus spoke were life, they were Truth, they were also full of Grace.

    

   I believe that what we call the Grace of God is often us simply being aware that our circumstances are pregnant with the presence of God.

   

    There is only One who is pure and holy, and what did He say to do? John 15:4 “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.”

    

   If the Grace of God is what helps us to live out our daily Christian walk and bear fruit, then how do we receive Grace to accomplish that? To stay in the presence of Jesus.

    

   Truth can lead to Grace, but only if it is spoken with Grace. Truth spoken out of good intentions can be misinterpreted by the hearer and sound more like legalism than an invitation to let God accomplish Truth in their life.

  

    It is the goal of this ministry to introduce people to Jesus in a deeply intimate and personal level by allowing them to experience the Presence of God. If we can get them to hear Jesus then they will meet and know Grace and Truth in a loving relationship instead of viewing these ideas as theological sound bites.

    

   Grace and Truth happen not when a biblical concept is understood but instead when He shows up in your circumstance. When we see the perfect holiness of Jesus then we can recognize the counterfeit in our own lives. To be holy we must spend time with the Holy.

     Freedom is a function of Grace because freedom happens when God speaks to us about an area of our life He is not allowed in, we say yes, He shows up to remove the pain, and then sets up residence in our newly remodeled heart.

  

    Grace and Truth and Freedom happen when you set out the welcome mat. God always wants to hang out. :)

Integrity's God hole......

Proverbs 11:3
"The integrity of the upright will guide them, but the perversity of the unfaithful will destroy them."

   Have you tried to define integrity? I have a placard I received as a gift that says “Integrity is what you do when no one else is watching.” Integrity, I think to most of us, means to do the right thing. I love Webster’s definition:

1: firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values: incorruptibility

2: an unimpaired condition: soundness

3: the quality or state of being complete or undivided: completeness

   While it is true that there is a “moral code” we can conduct ourselves by, this would, as Christians, make us no different than a self-help book club, Boy Scout troop, or other religion.

I think that for Christians, numbers 2 and 3 apply more. Let’s take these in context with our identity in Christ and Him abiding in us.

   An unimpaired condition or soundness. To be unimpaired means to be completely free to be as you were designed to be. A car is driving down the road and faces a speed bump. What happens? The car slows down. A car is driving down the road and faces a brick wall. What happens? A crash test dummy commercial. Which of these two cars were impaired? Both were. By definition each car was impaired because something was in its way and caused it to adjust what it was doing. This is key. In our lives, living with integrity is less about trying harder and more about giving up things that adjust our God given course.

   Trying harder won’t make us honest. If you are a new creation in Christ then you are honest. Period. The old man is dead. The problem comes when we do not live out our New Life honestly. When we allow something to adjust who we are and what we are doing, then we have stopped living with integrity. We have allowed something else to define who we are.

   The quality or state of being complete or undivided: completeness. I had a family member who once struggled with alcoholism, among other things in his life. Sitting on the couch with this very talented and gifted man who had thrown his life away, he said something to me that was so profound that I knew he hadn’t fully grasped it yet. “KC”, he said “We all have a God hole. There is just this huge hole inside of us that nothing else can fill. It’s like in kindergarten when the kids have to put the round peg into the round hole. Nothing else will fit in our God hole other than God. We try to fill it with other things and we are just incomplete.” It was, I believe, a confession of sorts about his own life.

   If a building is to maintain its integrity, then every bit of the design structure must be in place. Every pillar or brick or cement block. Whether it is a sky scraper or an outhouse, for a building to maintain its integrity it must be true to its original design. I believe that integrity, as far as you and I are concerned, is about maintaining our proper, God given design. Our God hole must be full. You cannot walk in integrity if you are not true to your original purpose, which is to love and be loved by God. Take out Christ who is the “Chief Cornerstone” and the whole thing just falls apart.

   

   As a leader, I must do everything I can to make sure that I live a life that is unimpaired by things that would distract from God and to stay true to my original design. A man or woman of integrity has X-ray vision. They can see their own heart, and what God has put in there, and they stay true to that image.

Obedience is God’s coffee table…

Joshua 5:6

“The Israelites had moved about in the desert forty years until all the men who were of military age when they left Egypt had died, since they had not obeyed the LORD. For the LORD had sworn to them that they would not see the land that he had solemnly promised their fathers to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey.”

   I love coffee. One of God’s greatest gifts to man is coffee. Not only do I love strong coffee but I love orphan care and helping the fatherless and there are just too many good organizations out there that make really great coffee that go to support those causes, and so I feel justified in loving good coffee when I buy it from them.

    

   One of my favorite things about coffee is that it can be served piping hot. Outside, in the cold, walking around with a cup of coffee just makes you feel warmer and can turn what seems like a breezy day into a wonderful outing. Have I mentioned that I love coffee?

   

    I also love the blessings of God. I want to have the blessing and favor of God on my life in a very great and powerful way. We are children of God and are made to carry His Presence. But sometimes, even though I know this, I wonder why I don’t walk in God’s blessing everywhere I go. Asking God this question I got a great answer that allows me to bring the best things in life together in an analogy. The blessings of God….and coffee.

  

    If I go to your home, or a coffee shop, and I want to drink coffee then I will need a cup of coffee, someplace to sit, and a coffee table. The cup is obvious. Of course I need to sit because, well, I’m drinking coffee, but the table is a big bonus too. I like my coffee piping hot and can’t just hold it in my hands, I’m going to need a place to set it….or I’m going to burn my hands because I am clumsy.

    

   What is my point?  You can give me twenty cups of coffee to drink, even all at once, when I come to your house and I will want all of them. The problem is, I am going to need a place to put them. For all the blessings of God on your life, and you want all of them, you still need a place to put them. Obedience is God’s coffee table for your life.

   

    In the scripture above the Israelites were kept out of the Promised Land for disobedience. The problem with disobedience isn’t that it makes God angry at you because you have to earn God’s love through doing what He says, or some other ridiculous notion. No, the reason disobedience is such a problem is because it doesn’t give the gifts of God anyplace to land.

     

   Why is obedience important? Because we can’t handle the blessings of God without character to back them up. If I walk up to you and give you a million dollars (not happening by the way) then what would you do with it? Well I would say that a corvette and a yearlong trip to Vegas are probably poor ways to steward that money. Investing, blessing, saving, etc. are all better ideas. But you wouldn’t do that if you didn’t have the self-control and wisdom to handle your money that way. Giving 1 million bucks to a 12 year old won’t benefit anyone unless you want a lifetime supply of Cheetos and Xbox games. For many of us, the reason God has not given us the things we have asked Him for is because He is developing our character to handle what we have asked for.

    

   I ask for a new job and I get a tough family situation. I ask for a new vehicle and for some reason my bank account bottoms out. I ask for a better home and I can’t sell mine. Could I suggest to you that sometimes the reason we are not walking in the things we have asked for is because sometimes we need the proper character to maintain it? And God has made it so that that only comes through obedience. Obedience is not about us earning the love of God, we already have that in infinite measure. Obedience is about us allowing God to bring us to a place to where we can walk in all of His blessings with integrity. Your blessed life will bless others lives so long as you handle His blessings with Godly character.

   

    I think the greater our obedience, the bigger the coffee table, and the more God given blessings we can contain in our lives…….

   Gonna go grab another cup of Joe…..

Insecurity.....you are safe enough to be you.

Matthew 10:29-31

New International Version (NIV)

²⁹ Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. ³⁰ And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. ³¹ So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

   "Insecurity is wrong security exposed" Bill Johnson

   Insecurity is a real issue and it is one that God cares about. We can not live to our full potential if we are insecure. Now, being someone who was insecure, I know that just by reading an article on insecurity you actually say to yourself "Great. This just confirms that I AM insecure" and because of that it can make the problem worse. Insecurity is a weapon of the Enemy, so anytime someone addresses it there is a defense mechanism that pops up. It is a terrible loop. 


   What is the lie that the Enemy tells you that makes you insecure? I once thought that lie was "you aren't good enough, you will never be good enough" . While that is a lie from the Enemy and can hurt us if we believe it, it really isn't the issue with insecurity. Insecurity is just exactly what it sounds like, it is someone who is not secure. They do not feel safe enough to be who they were meant to be. I thought this was simply an identity issue, but I think the problem goes much deeper. Who do we get our identity from? Proper identity comes from God. You see, I believe if we feel insecure then at some point Satan has really gotten us to believe a lie about God. While he may say you aren't good enough, what he really wants you to hear is "God doesn't have your back."


   In the scripture above, Jesus says His Father cares when a sparrow hits the ground, that your hairs are numbered, and because of these things you shouldn't be afraid. I believe this scripture deals with insecurity in our minds. First, Jesus says "God loves you enough to know what is going on in your life." then, He says "God knows everything about who you are." In this scripture Jesus says that because God watches over you, and because He knows everything about who He made you to be, that you should not be afraid. You are safe enough to be you. We should get our security and courage from the fact that we are watched over, that we are known intimately, and that we are valued by Him.

    Sometimes we can put our faith in ourselves because "If I don't look out for number 1, then nobody will." So we are our own security. This is a rotten bridge to walk on. If we ever fail, then our entire support structure falls out from underneath us and life looks impossible.



   I have spent time in ministry with men whose parents didn't make them feel safe. No father figure, a mother in pain or non-existent. Without proper parenting we don't know security as a child. As painful as this can be to overcome, we can overcome it by realizing that our parents were given to us to point us to the nature of God. If our parents did not give us a good representation of who God is or who we are, we have a kind and faithful heavenly Father who is willing to show us.


   Know that God watches you, He knows you intimately, and He values you. Your security can be found in Him. You are safe enough in His arms to be who you were meant to be.....

Update.....
   I just spent time in prayer and prayed about my own insecurity. I asked the Lord to give me a word to fight my own insecurity. He showed me, as a priest, carrying the ark of the covenant into a city. What He said was "You are the New Glory. Christians are now the carriers of the holiness, the power, and the wonder of my Glory. Why would you be insecure when you are carriers of My Glory."

   Forgive me Lord for feeling insecure while I am a carrier of your Glory. In me is the new Holy Place. Why should I be insecure when Your power lives in me? Thank you Father.

Fields of flesh, sod of the Spirit, and endurance.

Galatians 6:8-9

   "For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption..."
   It has been said that the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. To err is human. This is true. But to continue to make the same mistake over and over again expecting that your situation will improve over time would fit into this definition of insanity.

   Bad reactions, believed lies, and harmful relationships are three very common areas of "sowing into the flesh." Daily we can sow into these things and may not even know it. Mainly because these three areas seem automatic. We believe lies from the enemy and we are deceived. But deception, by nature, means you don't know you are deceived. Believed lies leads to bad reactions. The Enemy tells an ex-inmate "You have no worth. You will never amount to anything." If this is believed then it forces a bad reaction. The ex-inmate says "I have no worth, so I will make people value me." and many times this is seen through abuse, or acts to gain attention or to prove themselves to others. Rebellion to authority happens because so many times if we believe that we have no worth, then we will not submit ourselves to others who we feel may judge us. Submitting to authority is impossible because we cant let others see that we have no worth. To those who have believed this lie submission equals worthlessness.

   And bad relationships follow. Because if we believe a lie, then we will surround ourselves with people who make us comfortable in that lie and it simply reinforces that lie and makes us as comfortable as we can be in it. It hurts to change a dressing on a wound, because the wound has to be opened up. So we cover it with bad relationships, or a lack of relationships. But any relationship or lack of relationship based on believed lies will only continue to sow into the flesh.

   Any time we allow the flesh to win, anytime we feed it, we strengthen it and set ourselves up for failure.

   "But he who sows to the spirit will of the spirit reap everlasting life. and let us not grow weary in well doing..."
   Sowing into the Spirit will give us life. It is the only way to break the cycle of lies, reactions and bad relationships. Sowing life and not death is as simple as choosing to walk with Christ. You cannot walk with Christ and not be sowing into the Spirit. Why? Because what He says to you is the seed of Life.

   What does sowing into the Spirit look like? Matt 13:1-23 Tells the parable of the sower.

   "On the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea. ² And great multitudes were gathered to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat down; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.

³ Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow. ⁴ And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. ⁵ Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. ⁶ But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. ⁷ And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. ⁸ But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. ⁹ He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”"

 ¹⁰ And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” ¹¹ He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. ¹² For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. ¹³ Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. ¹⁴ And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says:

‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand,

and seeing you will see and not perceive; ¹⁵
for the hearts of this people have grown dull.
Their ears are hard of hearing,
and their eyes they have closed,
lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears,
lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,
so that I should heal them.’

¹⁶ But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; ¹⁷
or assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.

¹⁸ Therefore, hear the parable of the sower: ¹⁹ When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. ²⁰ But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; ²¹ yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. ²² Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful, ²³ But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”

What is being sown in this parable? Well, Jesus is pretty plain about this. He says "the word". 

   Isn't it great that the one who loves you the most, the one who wants to talk to you every minute of every day,when He speaks, actually fixes your life? Sowing into your Spirit is this simple....Hear God, respond to God. Hearing God for your situation is the key. This is only accomplished through time spent with Him. All that is left is for us to respond. God does not force your hand. God will give you every answer for every test and pop quiz you will take in life, but its no good if you don't write down the answers.

   Patiently hearing and responding to God until your circumstance improves can get hard. I want to encourage you with this word study from Skip Moen on the word patience. As stretched as we can get, patience for our circumstances seems impossible if you look at it in the wrong light........

   

love is patient  1 Corinthians 13:4  NASB

Patient – The Greek word is makrothumia.  It comes from two older words, makros meaning “long” (i.e. an extended temporal duration) and thumos meaning “passion.” Love has a passion that lasts.  That seems very nice, the sort of thing we like to hear at a wedding or read in a Hallmark card.  We generally see patience as something that we do, by obligation or commitment.  To be patient is to take active steps that overcome our natural response of self-protection, defense or revenge.

But this particular word chosen by Paul has a different context.  In the Bible, makrothumia focuses our attention on God, not on our behavior.  It is God’s gift of the postponement of judgment, always with a view toward repentance.  Once we understand that God has postponed the judgment we deserved, we are also required to postpone our judgment of others.  Patience becomes a necessary quality of service to God.  The obligations of hesed require that we exercise the same quality of makrothumia toward others that God demonstrated toward us.  In other words, you can’t be a follower of the King and have a short temper.
How do I express love as patience?  I leave things up to God.  Patience puts all of the circumstances of life in God’s hands, expressing the confidence that God will act as the divine judge.  It does not demand repentance as a condition of performance but rather shows the gift of grace as a worshipful response to the pardon we received from God.  It always allows a space for repentance.  Dr. Laura once said that it wasn’t necessary to forgive someone until that person demonstrated a willingness to reform.  She was wrong.  Once we accept God’s hesed, we incur the obligation regardless of the other’s action.

In this verse makrothumia is passive.  The word expresses something that happens to me, not something I make happen.  Love is patient does not mean that I exercise my mental and emotional muscles to attain a higher plane of ethical action.  It means that I wait – that I accept what comes, I allow whatever befalls me.  Of course, this can only be done because I know that God is love and what befalls me is ultimately in His hands, under His control and within His power.  Love is patient is another glorious way of saying that I am not in control, that my world is not up to me.

Patience (makrothumia) is not self-control.  It is not biting my tongue, enduring attacks, holding back my desires, restraining my self-defense.  Patience is giving up my life to God, no matter what happens to me.  Love as patience means that I turn it over to God and wait, just like He waited for me, just like He withheld judgment from me.
If your love is patient, you wait – because God waited.  That is enough.
Topical Index: patience, makrothumia, 1 Corinthians 13:4