IMPACT: 24/7 Prayer in our County

THE VISIONIt can be any day of the week, any time of the day or night. As you walk into the room, the first thing that strikes you is a very tangible presence of the Lord, a presence that is increasingly touching the greater community. The beautiful worship music certainly contributes to the atmosphere as a popular worship chorus is extended to a 15 or 20 minute prophetic song and prayer. About a dozen people are scattered throughout the room either worshiping along with the band, or kneeling in prayer at a seat, or pacing the aisle way, praying. The singers up front alternate with one another, often harmonizing with one another’s spontaneous, prayerful lyrics as the musicians play. Every 15 minutes or so, a prayer leader reads one of the prayers of the Apostle Paul or a Psalm or another portion of scripture, then prays the scripture for the city of Ann Arbor and the region. You join your heart to the prayer and quietly amen each point of the prayer, gripped with a burden to see even a greater measure of the spiritual breakthrough that has already begun to hit this strategic city and region since this prayer meeting began. Today, it is the worship team of one of the area’s Korean churches that is providing the offering of music to the Lord. Yesterday when you came in, it was the worship team of one of the university churches. Last week, it was one of the other community churches that led in song. As the current song comes to a close, you see another team of worship leaders preparing to take over the next two hour shift which will begin the night watch that will go all night. This team consists of “prayer missionaries” and musicians who have come from different parts of the country to focus on praying for the region for 6 months. Your heart swells with joy as you gratefully reflect on the great things God has done in unifying believers and transforming the community since the Intercessory Mission began. You were there when it was just one day each week. Then you were there when it grew to two days, three days, etc.. until today, where this kind of “Harp and Bowl” prayer occurs 24/7!   THE NEED Our community stands out spiritually among others in the region. Unfortunately, it is not in a positive sense. We have everything from abject poverty on one end of the county to idolatrous materialism in another. We have institutions that influence the entire world, but actually influene people away from Christ and holiness. The culture of death, occultism, and an anti-Christ spirit reign. Immorality is rampant, even to the point that some of our fellow pastors have fallen. Other pastors are facing major health, family, or personal battles. Ann Arbor has become known as a “pastor’s graveyard.” The absence of true mega-churches in a community our size is also telling. What is the answer?   Scripture and history point to prayer. If we want to see breakthrough, we will need to radically commit ourselves to prayer.

THE TESTIMONY Bangor, Ireland, in 555 AD, under the leadership of Comgall and Columbanus, night and day worship continued for over 300 years resulting in the thrusting forth of missionaries with apostolic power that touched all of Europe. Clairvaux, France, in 1120 AD, Bernard and 700 monks gathered to pray. This continued 24 hours a day for many years resulting in a dynamic release of the prophetic (from which we get the word clairvoyance) and evangelism across Europe.

Hernhutt, Germany, in 1727 AD, under the leadership of Count Zinzendorf, night and day intercession continued in what became known as “The Hundred Year Prayer Meeting.” For over 120 years, this single prayer meeting continued uninterrupted and birthed the first great world-wide missionary movement. It was through one of these missionaries that John Wesley experienced his conversion and himself initiated Great Awakenings in England and America.

New York, USA, in 1857, Jeremiah Lamphier, a quiet businessman, was appointed by the Dutch Reformed Church as a missionary to the central business district. The church and city were both in decline. He called a prayer meeting in the city to be held at noon each Wednesday. Eventually 5 men showed up. Two weeks later, they moved to a daily schedule of prayer. Within six months, 10,000 men were gathering to pray. This prayer meeting is often pointed to as the beginning of the Second Great Awakening, where famous evangelists such as Charles Finney and others saw over one million new believers won to Christ.

MORE RECENT EXAMPLES Jim Cymbala – Received a word from the Lord in his heart to make the prayer meeting THE priority in his church, The Brooklyn Tabernacle. The church grew from a handful of people to a congregation approaching 10,000 people that has so far planted 17 other churches in New York and across the nation.

Roy Pointer – After extensive research of Baptist churches in the United Kingdom arrived at the conclusion that wherever there was positive growth, there was one recurring factor: they were all praying churches.

David Shibley – When asked to explain how the church in which he worked as Pastor for prayer grew from 13 to 11,000 people in 9 years, he replied, “The evangelistic program of our church is the daily prayer meeting. Every morning, Monday through Friday, we meet at 5:00 AM to pray.”

David Yonghii Cho – Has mandated day and night prayer in his church for over 30 years. His church has become the largest single congregation in the world, and the church in his nation of South Korea has grown from 1.8% to 40.8% of the population in the twentieth century.

THE SCRIPTURAL CALL TO PRAYER "Is it not written: 'My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations?’” – Mark 11:17 “The core identity of the Church now and in eternity is to be a House of Prayer” – Mike Bickle “And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly.” – Luke 18:7-8 “I have posted watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the LORD, give yourselves no rest, and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth.” – Isaiah 62:6-7 “ They all joined together constantly in prayer…” – Acts 1:14   I.M.P.A.C.T. Touch the Ann Arbor, Michigan area, and you will touch the world. Local IMPACT will result in international IMPACT. The brightest and the best from all over the world come to this community to study and to work, often returning to their part of the world as leaders in their countries and cultures.

That is why this ministry is called I.M.P.A.C.T. Prayer is the single most powerful force on earth. The I.M. stands for Intercessory Mission. The P.A.C.T. stands for the Pastors’ Alliance for County Transformation: a group of pastors, churches, and ministries that have united together to do whatever it will take to bring transformation to this region. We realize everything begins with prayer. Thus we have I.M.P,A.C.T!

Thirsting, coming, drinking -- Phil Tiews

For thousands of years, where the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers come together in what is not southern Iraq, a group of people have lived who are now referred to as the "Marsh Arabs". Some trace their roots back to the ancient Sumerians. Indeed, some folks think this is the sight of the Garden of Eden. These folks have built their houses from reeds on slightly raise ground, fished, kept water buffalos, and lived because the flow of the rivers continually renewed their marshlands, an area about the size of Massachusetts. In the 1990‟s they backed an uprising against Saddam Hussein. In retaliation, Saddam set out to destroy them and their way of life. He built massive levies which channeled the waters of the rivers and caused them to rush right by the marshes. As a result, the marshes dried up, the reeds died, the fish and other wildlife left, and eventually so did the Marsh Arabs.

With the overthrow of Saddam, the opportunity to try to reverse this disaster. Some people took the initiative to tear holes in the levies on their own, but there have also been organized efforts to dismantle the drainage system and restore the flow of water to the marshes. The question was, would life return with the water.

To a degree that astounded the scientists studying it, the marshes sprang back to life as the water flowed again. The reeds which formed the foundation of the way of life grew from the dry ground. Birds and fish returned. And with them, many of the Marsh Arabs. There are still great challenges because now, among other problems, other nations upstream are diverting the water, but life has returned where it looked like it had died out.

On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. John 7:37-39

When l heard about this situation in the Iraqi marches, the above words of Jesus came back to me. The marches are a dramatic demonstration of how life dries up when the flow of „living‟ water is shut off. Not only do we dry up personally, but there is no flow to others to spread life abroad.

I was also struck by the strategy of an enemy to choke off life. Saddam couldn’t stop the river, but he walled it off from flowing into the marches. Satan can’t stop the river of God, either, but if he can keep us from thirsting, coming to Jesus, and drinking, then the living water does not flow into us to bring refreshment and life — and there is none to flow out of us for others.

We are now in a time of seeking the Lord for revival of the life of His Spirit among us. The key, as always, is in returning to the Lord. Even if we feel dried up and things seem to have shriveled all around us, when the living water flows again because we are thirsting, coming, drinking, life will return, quickly and abundantly.

In this Advent season when we are praying for the Lord’s coming, let’s open our lives afresh to the flow of His Spirit. Pray for a greater thirst. Look for opportunities to come to Jesus and drink throughout or day. And let’s expect that the Spirit will flow through us to others to bring them the Lord’s Kingdom life, as well. It may be a word of encouragement, a chance to pray for healing, an opportunity to share your story and to listen to theirs, or an occasion to bless someone.

The more living water is in our marsh, the more life we will have and the more life will flow from us to those around us.

Advent – praying for the sword day

… the king sprang suddenly erect.  Tall and proud he seemed again; and rising in his stirrups he cried in a loud voice, more clear than any there had heard a mortal man achieve before:

Arise, arise Riders of Théoden! Fell deeds awake: fire and slaughter! Spear shall be shaken, shield be splintered, A sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises! Ride now, ride now!  Ride to Gondor!

Suddenly the king cried to Snowmane and the horse sprang away.  Behind him his banner blew in the wind, white horse upon a field of green, but he outpaced it.  After him thundered the knights of his house, but he was ever before them… For morning came, morning and a wind from the sea; and darkness was removed, and the hosts of Mordor wailed, and terror took them, and they fled, and died, and the hoofs of wrath rode over them.

This passage from J.R.R Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy might seem out of place as we approach Christmas, but it has come back powerfully to me as I have been praying during Advent.  In Advent we are asking for the King to come, and the Bible makes it very clear that when He comes a second time it will be very different than His first coming:

Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war.  His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself.  He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.  And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses.  Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.  And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. 

Rev 19:11-16

Sounds a lot like the ride of Théoden!  That day will be ‘a sword day, a red day’ and the King of Kings will sweep His enemies before Him.  He will establish His Kingdom and there will be none to oppose Him.  I think this is why we love stories of rescuers arriving in the nick of time to set people free from the attack of evil.  It touches on the Great Story which God has put deep in our hearts, the Hope of the coming of the King to put all things right.

However, as we wait, King Jesus has taught to pray ‘Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven’.  That ‘sword day’ will not come fully and finally until Jesus returns, but right now, every day in small and large ways incrementally that day is to be pressed out in the world around us.  We are to ask for, expect, and participate in His Kingdom, His rule, His rescue to break in.  We are not to hunker underground and await His coming, but to pray and be part of His Kingdom coming daily until the day He comes to finish the job.

As I have prayed and thought on this, I realize that for me to live and believe this way, His Kingdom is going to have to come more in my life, too!  I have enemies of fear, of slavery to approval, of unbelief that need to be swept away for me to be a partner is seeing the Lord’s will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.   Freeing me to witness boldly, to pray for healing, to work for reconciliation, to address wrongdoing.  So this Advent I am praying for the Rider on the White Horse to sweep through my life and rout these enemies so that I can be part of the pressing out of His rule and will now – until the final ‘sword day’.

A Nurse's story, Hearing the Music of Heaven

By Ann B. The reason I am writing is to confirm the authenticity of Betty's experience [hearing of heavenly music at a prayer meeting], though you don’t need my confirmation.  But my heart is rejoicing, so I will tell you of it!

One night, almost twenty years ago, I was pool nurse assigned to a hospital ward I had not worked on before.  They gave me a patient who was in the process of dying, a process that had taken a long time.  Her belongings indicated she was a Christian but no one visited her.  She was barely conscious but slightly aware of my presence.  I asked God to allow her to die on my shift so she would have a prayer companion and did my best to make her comfortable.  Out at the desk, the joke was I was the one who would be "stuck" going to the morgue, a not very pleasant task.  I made loud joking comments that I didn't want to go down to the basement morgue in a strange hospital, etc., even as I inwardly begged God to let this woman, an elderly black woman named Mary, to die with a Christian near her.  My other patients were not difficult so she was my main concern.

By the grace of God, my midnight relief nurse came early, and I gave her report very early and then we both went in and cared for the dying woman.  I had called her family and they had just arrived.  She died. Her family wept with both of us there.  Because I had already given report, the night nurse said she would take the body to the morgue if I would just ready it.  This was an honor. This left me with the two young nurse aids who had cared for this woman for months. I could talk to them and even console them. They were grieving.  We talked about heaven and saints, and God's love and good death.

As I walked out of that hospital, I felt I was floating in God's presence.  I spent a long time praying in the car before I went home.  I was singing in tongues and the experience was entirely different.  I was singing alto!  I am an alto but have never had the knack to sing harmony to the soprano melody. I could that night and I am going to be able in heaven. I heard a melody and I knew to sing a harmony and it was beautiful.  I felt that the beautiful starry night had opened up to heaven and somehow I almost heard the music my sister, who was before Jesus, was hearing. Though I cannot, twenty years later, describe the interludes and choral arrangement as Betty T. does now, I know I could then. She has heard that same music! It was clear music, music that if I had enough musical knowledge I could write down. Though Betty may regret not sharing at the meeting, I thank her for doing her job of listening to that music because that was far more important! The Language of God upon her overwhelmed her.

I hope you can follow what I am going to say, Phil. It is a little loose but I think it is important.  There is a reason God lets us sing together, and sing in tongues! Music is the language of heaven.  Music relates to the mathematics of sound vibration.   We are a science and math family and we like to say math is God's language.  We like the t-shirt that says, "Then God spoke and said, "E=mc2". The forces of creation are mathematical.  Mathematics describes and determines not just chemical and physical reaction, but even growth of plants and cells.

Steve and Joanna [husband & daughter] build wind chimes tuned to famous music chords (like Moonlight Sonata) by figuring out the mathematics of music and metal vibration. Math takes the left brain tools of hard metal and drill press and saw and combines it with the right brain impulse of wanting to hear the chords of a favorite song gently sound on the night breeze.  It is math, Steve and Joanna’s shared language and the language of God, which pulls together engineering and manufacturing of items.  In the same way, music often pulls together the art of a film or stage, which is sound and light.  Excellent writing or speaking has a musical quality.  Color, the vibration of light, follows strict mathematical and almost musical rules and is an essential part of the visual arts.  When we are singing in tongues, God is literally working creativity within us.  When we meditate on Him and see His visions, He is speaking that language to us that makes clarity between impulse and tool.

The Holy Spirit is within all creativity and all the forces of creation.  Some of us are all impulse and desire and need to connect with the tools God wants us to have.  Some of us are all tools and skill but need passion and focus. Many of us are stuck doing things just to do them; using the same tools over and over in the same old way. We need to consider His way. God is training and disciplining others to do His will properly; molding them in His image. Some follow their own passions and own interests and almost seem to declare their own will holy. Yet it is the foolish and the little ones in the eyes of the world that often hear His Voice and know His will. The Holy Spirit wants to do something NEW.  He wants us to do HIS WILL. He wants our attentiveness. What a grace to sing in tongues. What a grace to listen to Him.

I heard the music of heaven because I had the practical skills to help a woman die.  By the grace of God, I had the opportunity to attend to her and be with what He was doing with her. This touched me so deeply that I will never forget it. I have not had many opportunities in nursing since, and I might not work in that capacity again.  If God caused me to learn nursing just to ready me for the day that I might hear that music again, it was worth all the work! Steve and Joanna created a wind chime with their knowledge of metal and music. A foolish silly thing to do perhaps but it clinks in the backyard.  It touched my daughter so much that I think it may define her career as an engineer.  May God use that career to His glory.

We must attend to what God is doing that we may learn to do His will.  The kingdom of heaven is all around us. It is as real as the chimes hanging in my yard, or a body that needs washing and wrapping for the morgue, or the colors of a spring flower. Who knows but today we will have an experience thrust on us that calls us to attention on God, what He wills, what He does.  When I called a nursing agency for a chance to earn a little money, I did not expect to hear heaven!  When Joanna started to work on a wind chime, she did not know God was pulling together a passion for music and math into a career as an engineer. Betty did not know as she prayed in tongues at what must be her two thousandth prayer meeting, that she would hear the harmonies of heaven.  He is calling, He is new, and He is eternal.  Our whole purpose is to Know, Love and Serve Him in this life and be happy with Him in the Next.  We must pay attention!  Like the eyes of a servant upon the Hand of Her Mistress, so focus on Our Lord and His Gestures of Love.

Ann B.

EACH – an initiative for Everyone A Chance to Hear the gospel in SE Michigan

Almost 200 churches in the metro Detroit and SE Michigan area are coming together to pray for our region and point toward a saturation outreach of ‘good news and good deeds’ in the 40 days after Easter 2011.  What began as an idea of one church to reach its neighborhood has mushroomed into a regional movement as the Spirit has impressed on many churches the urgency of this time in the history of SE Michigan.  You can get more information on EACH at their web site www.EACHtoday.com .  The PACT network of churches and ministries, including The Word of God, are discerning how the Lord might want them to engage with this initiative.  There are great similarities between how the Lord has led PACT and EACH including a deep conviction about the priority of cooperation and the foundational position of prayer in any Kingdom enterprise.  During these initial phases of EACH churches are urged to pray, networks of intercessors are being mobilized, and large prayer gatherings are taking place.  The 40 days before Easter, which most churches celebrate as Lent of course, will be a time of fasting and prayer for the region.  Beginning with Easter, there will be some coordinated ‘macro-strategies’ launched such as ad campaigns, possibly a major march, etc., and each participating organization will launch the ‘micro-strategies’ the Lord has given them for their area.  The 40 days of outreach will conclude with a major celebration, possible at Ford Field, and then plans for follow-up and discipleship of new believers will be initiated.   The Spirit is stirring the church to love, unity, and mission.  Regardless of how The Word of God and PACT gets involved, let’s be praying for the Lord to work through EACH to bring thousands to himself and further the transformation of our region.

How can we 'live more and more in the Holy Spirit'?

“I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” – Jesus 

By Phil Tiews

At the very core of our identity as The Word of God is the Holy Spirit.  For many of us being baptized in the Holy Spirit was the revolutionary event in our walk with the Lord and the mission of renewing the church is his call to us as a community.  As we return to the Lord’s vision for us, we are taking the next several months to focus on ‘living more and more in the Holy Spirit’ as we have covenanted together to do.

Clearly Jesus is eager for us to do this very thing!  As we know, he promised his Holy Spirit to the disciples and told them to wait in Jerusalem until they were filled with power so they could fulfill his mission for them.  He said “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” (Luke 12:49).  While there are various thoughts on how to understand this verse, one strong candidate is that he was wishing for the fire of the Spirit to enkindle the earth.

Are we burning with the same desire for the Spirit?  We can be, if we ask Jesus to give us his heart.  We don’t need to settle for a cooled-down version of the Christian life, and we shouldn’t.  It is not someone else’s job now to carry on the mission to see the church renewed, re-fired, the mission is still ours until we hear otherwise from the Commander!

So what will in involve for us ‘to live more and more in the Holy Spirit’?  Among others, I am sensing three things:

• Disruption of our lives
• Deepening of commitment to the Kingdom
• Growth in love

Fire will bring change Whatever else might be involved, clearly when Jesus spoke of bringing fire on the earth, he had some tumult in mind!  This is not a crackling campfire safely in the fire pit.  It is a conflagration that is meant to enkindle the earth!  We should expect that this might involve some shaking in our lives, too.  Don’t get me wrong, I am not naturally eager for this.  When we were younger and fresher as disciples, such a thought was exciting and one of the great attractions of following Jesus.  For many of us though, whether young or old, fresh or veteran, the thought of disrupted life patterns and additional challenges is scary.  That is OK.  It should be a bit scary to follow Jesus.  After all, we are not leading, He is, and he is pursuing a monumental mission – to deliver and transform the human race, indeed, the whole universe.

The Holy Spirit is the power he gives us to participate in that mission.  It comes as no surprise, then that living more and more in the Holy Spirit will rearrange the furniture a bit!  Let’s not fear it, but embrace it as the means of running with the Son in His quest.

Fire leads to tempering I was reading in the recent ‘Voice of the Martyrs’ magazine of a church in Indonesia which has undergone severe persecution.  On the day they were to dedicate their new church building, a Muslim mob gathered and threatened them.  A few weeks later, under pressure from Muslim extremists, the local government sealed them out of their own building so they took to praying by the road in front of it.  Enemies throw glass and dead rats and other garbage in the area each Saturday night so they have to clean up before Sunday worship.  Yet despite the oppression and the fear, the Spirit is actually strengthening them!

Outdoor worship is often difficult for the church members, who are forced to endure the scorching sun or drenching rain.  But Muslims often hear the gospel when they pass by – something they wouldn’t hear if the services were held in a church building.

And Pastor Palty says the persecution has actually been a blessing to his church family.  “before…believers seldom came to church.’ He says.  ‘But when the persecution came, the believers gained incentive to come to church and pray and gather together in unity.  Maybe the Lord has allowed this so the believers will have unity.  I cannot tell you what will happen but I see that my congregation has a commitment to keep doing the service, because the church is not a building; the church is the believers.”

As living more and more in the Spirit brings some disruption to our lives and leads us to engage the world around us in mission, it is going to call for a deeper commitment to stay the course.  But that is part of the empowerment the Spirit brings to the body.  Casual Christianity will not be the outcome of living more and more in the Holy Spirit, but rather an ever deepening commitment to one another and the Kingdom mission Jesus has given us together.

Fire leads to love At the recent Fall Retreat Mike Gladieux  reminded us that love is the mark of a genuine disciple of Jesus.  In Galatians 5:16 where Paul says, ‘So, I say, live by the Spirit…’, he has just told his readers ‘…serve one another in love.  The entire law is summed up in a single command; “love your neighbor as yourself.”’  Living by the Spirit is SO we can serve one another in love.  We often think of living more and more in the Holy Spirit in terms of more healings, more prophecies, more miracles.  And may we experience more and more of these!  But another sure sign of living more and more in the Holy Spirit will be a growth in love and service of one another, a turning from our selfish desire, attitudes and ways to selfless giving of ourselves to others.  Like floodwater which on breaking through a levy makes an every widening gap, may love break through and spread out to flood our families, community and County as we live more and more in the Holy Spirit!

Our Call—Love as I Have Loved You, by Mike Gladieux

What does it mean ‘to follow His Son Jesus…’?           

Our Call—Love as I Have Loved You

By Mike Gladieux

To be a disciple of Jesus means to have a relationship with Him and to be like Him.  This is far more central than any particular thing that we can do for Him.  Love is the virtue which makes our relationships work right.  After a few months something else happened that struck me and broadened my perspective on these matters.  We were given some prophecies from the joint gathering held on Pentecost Sunday.  There was a certain prophesy in particular that spoke directly to me.  In this one part that I am quoting from, The Lord is revealing in a special way some significant sins that He wants all of us to be free of.  This is a part of one of the words: 

“Today, this day I choose to reveal to you what you pretend to have held in secret.  But there are no secrets from me.  … Today, on this day, what I see in your hearts is this:  I see envy, strife, competition, jealousy, pride, a critical spirit, judgmentalism, bitterness, gossip, vindictiveness, a mean spirit, strife, disunity, chaos, and yes, even hatred … “ 

What struck me about this list is that these are all sins against Love.  I thought about my situation, and that it was infested with sins against Love.  I also realized that my personal situation was only a subset of the work that God was speaking about in this prophecy.  He was actually speaking to all of us in The Word of God and to all of the brothers and sisters in The Word of Life about this matter, about sins against Love.  So He wanted to do something for all of us in this area and was not just dealing with me and my personal issues.  So my perspective on my own situation was broadened as it was placed within the context of a work that The Lord was doing with us all as individuals and as a people.  I now view these matters as sins that war against or destroy our everyday life together; that is, family life, work relationships, friendships with neighbors, community relationships with brothers and sisters, and our relationship with The Lord Himself.

I think that this matter has a direct bearing on what we have been seeking The Lord for:  vision for The Word of God.  This prophecy signals a work of the Holy Spirit that has a direct relationship to us as a people, as a community.

Vision and Love

I was on my way to a “Vision” meeting at Phil and Barb Tiews’ house.  As I drove down Brooks street I realized that I was going to be quite early, in fact I would get there more than 15 minutes before it was to start.  So I decided to stop.  I pulled to the side of the street and prayed a bit and opened the Bible.  Here is what I read.

This is from the introduction to the book of Numbers from the Open Bible:

Israel follows God step-by-step until Canaan is in sight.  Then in the crucial moment at Kadesh they draw back in unbelief.  Their murmurings had already become incessant.  “Now the people became like those who complain of adversity before The Lord.” (Num 11:1)  But their unbelief at Kadesh-barnea is something God will not tolerate.  Their rebellion at Kadesh marks the pivotal point of the book.  The generation of the exodus will not be the generation of the conquest.

They could not enter their inheritance, their promise.  I saw that this was not a vindictive response by The Lord.  They had to have courage in order to fight.  They did not.  They were cowards.  Whimps, wuss’s and pantywaists.  He had shown them His power in many ways, but they did not or could not rely on Him.  Think of the battle against the Amalekites, where Joshua mowed them down as long as Moses could keep his arms raised up.  The whole situation was designed to show the Israelites clearly that it was The Lord who was fighting for them and giving them the victory.   There were many varied examples of this during their desert wanderings.  But now at the critical moment they were overcome with fear.  Therefore they could not enter into the conquest of the land.  Fear and cowardice were intrinsically opposed to what they had to do/be in order to claim their inheritance.  They needed courage, grounded in trust in God.  They didn’t have it.  The next generation would inherit the promise, but they would not.

Brothers and sisters, there are not many of us left.  Many have moved into different aspects of the Lord’s call on their lives, but many have departed and lost all hope of what we were called to by The Lord.  And those of us who are left are divided into two camps.  Now think about this question?  What was/is His calling?  I say “was/is” because His calling is not really going to change.  It is the purpose for which He formed us, named us, and made a covenant with us, His purpose for us.  This cannot change.  We are not on plan B.  So our original calling and purpose is still intact.  Also, even if we are administered as two communities, the original calling is still the same, and should apply to all of us in both communities.  What is our inheritance as a people?  What is the promise that The Lord has offered to us?  What is it that He holds out to us as our purpose in His plan?

Called to Love

Listen to this portion of our covenant as a community:

In order to respond to what God is doing among us, in order to express more fully how we are to be the people He is calling us to be, once again we declare our desire to give our whole lives to Him, to follow His Son, Jesus, and to live more and more in the Holy Spirit. We desire to love and serve Him in lives of daily prayer and service; to praise and worship Him always; to ever seek His face; to know and serve the truth of His Word in the joy, peace, and love of the Holy Spirit; to believe what He speaks to us and to be obedient to the truth of His Word and the guidance of His Spirit; to offer hospitality to those whom He sends us; to widen our hearts to receive those He adds to our number; and to carry out the mission that He is entrusting to us.  Above all, we desire to be a people who always grow, by His great mercy, in the fervor of that first love He has given us: He who is our all.  We desire to consecrate our lives to Him not simply as individuals, but as members of a people, members of The Word of God.

We are to be brothers and sisters in the Lord, loving each other from the heart.  Indeed there was a prophecy back then which said that in the later days we would be known for our love more than for our teaching or wisdom.  And the sins against Love are directly opposed to our entering into The Lord’s promise to us, to our inheritance.  Now at this time God is offering us a chance to fulfill the promise that He had for us from the beginning.  Here are some examples of what we might expect as this work of The Lord progresses.

• People will be overwhelmed by His love for us.
• People will get “zapped” by simply attending a prayer meeting
• We will Love each other and value our relationships with each other above all others. 
• We will realize the importance of our life together and there will be great excitement as we talk about it and share it with each other.  How precious our community life is!

Brothers and sisters, sins against Love are intrinsically incompatible with the promise or calling that The Lord has given to us because our inheritance is to love each other and Him, from the heart.

The life of the Trinity

My brother Chuck who was ten years older than I.  On his wedding day he got up and my Mom asked him what he wanted for breakfast, before his wedding.  He said pancakes, as usual.  We always liked pancakes the best.  My Mom said “You won’t be doing this again.  This is the last time.”  She knew, and we all knew, that his relationship with us was changing forever.  We were turning a corner.  He was leaving the house to get married and start a new life.  So certain daily happenings, so much a part of our life together, would not be any more.  Of course, he would start a new life with his wife.  In this way she would begin to share the Gladieux family life, and we would be gaining a daughter. 

What happened when Jesus left His Father’s house is like this, changing His relationship with the Father forever, leaving behind certain intimate things that once were part of their relationship within the Trinity.  But He left in order to take a bride to Himself, and we are invited to take part in the life of the Trinity.

“For this reason a man shall leave His Father and His mother and shall cleave to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.  This is a great mystery, but I speak of Christ and the church.”  Eph 5:31-2

Yes, Jesus is not just calling us servants or friends.  He is calling us to be His Bride, His beloved.  He has granted us to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the wedding chamber is waiting for us to enter.  The Spirit says to us “Be clothed in fine linen, without spot or wrinkle.  Be fully prepared for the wedding.”  The linen He is offering us and asking us to put on is not the symbolic ones that we put on years ago.  These are the real ones, the divinely-designed ones.

This universal Christian truth is at the very center of why He formed us and of who we are.  This was central to our calling from the beginning and it remains our heart and soul still today.  The Lord is still viewing us AND our sister community The Word of Life as under the original covenant that He made with us.  He is calling us all into that first love again, individually and as brothers and sisters together, even as two communities toward one another. 

We enter into God’s family and His divine relationships via marriage, and we are called to live that life on this earth and in these bodies.  The relationships that He has given us here are a reflection of what awaits us in heaven.  So we will feel right at home when we get there.  We will dwell with Him as his Beloved, and we’ll be right at home doing so.  But we don’t have to wait until we get there to enter into our inheritance.  The blessing of being His disciples is that we can enter into it now.  That is His gracious gift to those who follow Him.

Repenting of sins against Love

Now let’s return to that prophesy from the Pentecost gathering.  The word He spoke signals that at this time He wants to wash us with water by His word so that we can enter more fully into what He has for us.  So here are the spots and wrinkles that The Spirit wants to cleanse from as at this time. The real “fine linen, clean and white” is in constant need of cleaning and pressing to remove the spots and wrinkles.  This is because of our sin nature.  So repentance must be a recurring fact of life for us, a life style.  This is how we keep ourselves ready for Him and pleasing to Him, without spot or wrinkle.  So let’s look at this list of sins again.

Envy: A feeling of discontent and resentment aroused by the desire for the possessions or qualities of another person.

When we are rightly connected to Jesus, when we are abiding in Him, then He can fulfill our heart’s longings so that this cannot even gain a slight foothold in us.  No more insecurity in Him.

Strife: Heated, often violent dissension; bitter conflict. (Synonym - Discord)

Competition: Struggle between people for food, water, space, or other resources when the supply is limited.  Jesus Himself wants to be our sufficiency.

Jealousy:            The thoughts and feelings of insecurity, fear, and anxiety over the anticipated loss of something that we value, such as a relationship, a friendship, or love.

Jealousy often consists of a combination of emotions such as anger, sadness, and disgust.

Another description of jealousy is fear or wariness over being supplanted; apprehension about the possibility of losing affection or position.

If we are rightly connected to Him then He will fill us up.  His acceptance and love will support us at the deepest part of our being.  We will be invulnerable to jealousy.

Pride: An arrogant or disdainful attitude toward others; haughtiness.  Pride is also an excessively high opinion of ourselves; conceit.

Critical spirit: An inclination to judge as a critic, to find fault, to blame or to condemn.

Judgmental: Inclined to pass judgment, critical.

Bitterness: Proceeding from or exhibiting strong animosity. It is also an attitude that is marked by resentment or cynicism.

Jesus can give us a tender loving compassion for people that makes this something that does not even enter our minds.

Gossip: Rumor or talk of a personal, intimate, or sensational nature. Vindictiveness:           This is a disposition to seek revenge.  It is also marked by a desire to hurt someone; spiteful.

This is so petty; do we really need to worry about this?  What about in our relationship with our spouse?  You know, “you can’t just let yourself be walked all over.  Hey emotional abuse can be far worse than physical abuse!  Besides, someone has to speak the truth in these situations …” Jesus wants to release His pure selfless love into the very center of our lives.  Love one another as I have loved you.  A transformed marriage.

Mean Spirit: characterized by or displaying a propensity to be mean; selfish, malicious, etc.. It is characterized by pettiness.

What about when driving in the car?  How do we think/speak about other drivers?  Are we quick to accuse, find fault, criticize, blame?  Do we have an “auto ego”?  Jesus wants to grow in us a spirit of mercy and goodness, forbearing and thinking the best of others as our first response.

Disunity: lack of unity; especially dissension or disagreement.

Chaos: A condition of great disorder or confusion.

James 3:16 -- For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder (chaos) and every evil practice.

Hatred: Intense dislike of or extreme aversion or hostility toward another person.

This is another extreme one.  When are we ever likely to be drawn into this?  How about political rhetoric?  Much of it is based on this dynamic.  That is why it is so difficult to listen to sometimes.  Also, it is like a heavy burden on our hearts.  It weighs too much for us to carry. 

Jesus wants instead to give us rest for our souls.  Trust in Him to finally set right all these things.  He wants to give us a new dynamic in which to think about and talk about those with whom we disagree, characterized by grace and kindness.  We are to love our enemies.  We are to love those around us who are of the world.

Be His word of Love

Brothers and sisters, do we want to be God’s word to the whole face of the earth? Well, then we should be a word of Love.  And let us start by being His word to our husbands and wives, our children and parents, our co-workers, our friends and neighbors. Remember the song “What the world needs now is Love, sweet Love.  That’s the only thing that there’s just too little of … Lord, not just for some, but for everyone.”  (Written by Burt Bacharach and sang by Dionne Warwick, 1965)  But we have the power to actually implement this.  It is a whole new dynamic for our relationships. 

Changes like this in us will unleash His power within this world.  It is dynamite.  This is the life of the Heavenly City, of the New Jerusalem.  This is the divine life which God exhibited in the councils of the Trinity before all time. “I want them to see My glory Father, the glory that I shared with You before the worlds were formed.”  This is truly being like Jesus Himself.  It is out of this world.

This is how all men will know that we are His disciples.

Fall Retreat Audio Available

The weekend of October 22-24 The Word of God held its annual Fall Retreat on the theme of ‘To give our lives to God, to follow His Son Jesus, and to live more and more in the Holy Spirit’. These phrases taken from our covenant embody the life God has called us to and it was refreshing to center on that call once again. Excellent talks were given by Mike Gladieux, Peter Williamson, Dave Mangan and Ralph Martin. You can listen to them at our Audio Archive .

Classical Musician -- Jesus Has Done It ALL

By George A. For all intents and purposes my upbringing was secular. I participated in the local Episcopal Church. I was even an acolyte for eight years. But despite the trappings of Christianity I couldn’t really see much of Jesus.

My childhood was extremely lonely. I entered school with a vocabulary that was large and an interest in sports that was tiny. I was outcast and tormented. I entertained fantasies of carrying a machine gun to grade school and mowing people down. It was that bad. During this period I heard Malcolm X say, “We love people who love us, but we HATE those who hate us!” This made much more sense to me than the Sermon on the Mount.

I did find some solace in music. If I didn’t find close friends there, I at least had some companionship in the ensembles. I became very interested in the operas of Richard Wagner. His huge 4-opera cycle, “The Ring of the Niebelung” became a parable about humanity itself. Without going into a detailed synopsis (the operas total about 14 hours of stage time), I will say that a war starts in the first opera and is not concluded until the end of the fourth—at which point the world ends! The world Wagner created had no God, no final authority who stood above it all and could stop the conflict before all was lost. Instead, all the combatants are destroyed. This makes room for a new world order based on Love. I had suffered enough at the hands of my contemporaries to be at least as cynical about mankind as Wagner seemed to be.

Then I went away to college. Shortly after I arrived I was contacted by a member of Campus Crusade for Christ. I was asked to be part of a survey. The man also showed me the Four Spiritual Laws leaflet. It was there that I heard for the first time that Jesus had a personal interest in me. I tearfully accepted Him at that point.

Still, I had doubts and frustrations. Anyone can see the ground beneath his feet. It can be felt as well. But with the Lord I seemed to be dealing with an intangible or something just out of reach. This sent me on a search that took me into at least one church that nauseated me. WASN’T THERE SOMETHING I COULD LATCH ONTO? SOMETHING THAT NO ONE COULD EVER REFUTE?

During this time I became acquainted with a neighbor in my dormitory who was active in a group that met on Thursday nights. Most of them were “speaking in tongues.” I did not object to this phenomenon. I just could not see that there was anything special about it. My neighbor then began to use the lowest tactic of all: He PRAYED that I would come to a Word of God prayer meeting. Eventually I did. But I was not taken to the “Explanation Room.” Thus I was puzzled when I heard “singing in the Spirit.” (It wasn’t in the songbooks.) And when I heard my first prophecy, I all but panicked— “He’s here! He’s in the P.A. system!” Yet by the end of the meeting I was moved to tears—tears of Joy.

Two weeks later I was back, and once again I cried. But something happened. I stopped crying. An overwhelming sense of Peace had blanketed me. This was not the mere absence of conflict. There was something positive, something Loving about. When I signed up for the Life In The Spirit Seminar that night, it was as though someone was graciously asking me to come. I soon realized that this was the SOMETHING I had been seeking for 1-1/2 years. My life has not been the same since. It has not been a life without pain and problems, but it has been a life lived with Jesus and the Holy Spirit. I would recommend being baptized in the Spirit to all Christians.

P.S. In recent years the Lord has healed most of the damage done by my grade-school classmates. I still have no desire to see most of them, but the rage is gone. The Sequel/Conclusion

In 1995 at Easter-time I directed three ensembles. One of these appeared at the Community Easter celebration. We did a simple hymn that was well received. Yet, to me, the performance was a disappointment. I wanted to perform a more impressive (and much more difficult) piece by William Billings: “The Lord is Risen Indeed”. As it happened, there were too many problems. (e.g., I knew I was in trouble when one of my singers asked, ”What is this squiggly thing here?” Note: The “squiggly thing” was a quarter-note rest.) You may recall that I wrote about my frustrations in a letter that was printed in the Community newsletter. With the benefit of 8 years of hindsight I can now offer at least a partial explanation why the Lord allowed that performance to turn out the way it did.

In the last 2-3 years something finally sank into my soul as never before: THERE IS NOTHING MORE TO BE DONE. JESUS HAS DONE IT ALL. I have lived most of my life as if I were in a race with a moving finish line. It was always one step ahead of me. Another was of expressing it would be:

I am not acceptable (or lovable) unless __________________________ is accomplished. I have filled that blank with all sorts of things. Weightlifting, skydiving, tough clarinet solos just to name a few. Without realizing it I had taken that same approach to the music group. Our Lord, in His Wisdom and Love, restrained my effort.

Once again: THERE IS NOTHING MORE TO BE DONE. JESUS HAS DONE IT ALL. And I cannot thank Him enough.

George A.

Jesus Tsunami . . .

Saturday night, September 26, 2010 the water started rising on the Jesus Tsunami! Christians in Washtenaw County under the leadership of Pastor Mike Byrum of the IMPACT prayer room and Pastor Joseph Son of Ann Arbor Korean Church to the first step in a path that they hope will lead to 10,000 Christians praying daily! The vision is to have these brothers and sisters coordinate their daily prayers through a web site, www.JesusTsunami.com and then gather monthly for a time of corporate prayer. The first meeting was a good start. Folks for many churches were present and there was a strong presence of young folks, including the worship team. Check out the web site which is still under development for more information and vision and get ready to join the wave of prayer which the Spirit is stirring. May the Lord use it to usher in Kingdom transformation in our County!

Teenager: He Is Real!

By Mark G. I was born into a Word of God family. My parents took me to church, to prayer meetings, sent me to Christian schools and even gave me and my brother a Life in the Spirit Seminar when I was 9. But all this stuff didn’t really make a whole lot of sense to me. I didn’t understand why we went to all these things or why all these people like my parents got so excited at these prayer meetings. I knew it was about God, but I didn’t get it. I just didn’t see what the big deal was.

When I was 10 my brother and some of his friends started holding a kids’ version of The Word of God prayer meetings during the adult sessions. I wanted to see if I could make sense of what was going on, so I went. These little simple prayer meetings were my first experience of real understanding of God. Things began to click in my mind about who God was and what it meant to be a Christian.

In 1995, when I was 12, I went to Pine Hills Boys’ Camp for the first time. I had heard a lot about how cool the prayer meetings were and how God came and all. It all sounded very strange and far-out to me. I was really surprised by the military style of the camp, and even more surprised by the prayer meetings. In them I could see people getting affected directly by God. I can’t remember how much I personally experienced, but at least I saw the reality of God.

I think it was that autumn that my family first visited the Toronto Airport Vineyard. I remember seeing all that was going on and thinking, “This is really weird.” People were doing and saying all sorts of crazy things. I remember getting prayed over, getting “slain” in the Spirit and then getting “holy laughter.” That was my first tangible experience of God’s presence. I felt so loved. But I still didn’t “get it.”

The next spring I was preparing for Confirmation in my church. My grandfather, Bobbie Joe Cavnar, came up to visit my family and he prayed over me. I had gone through the Life in the Spirit Seminar, but the gift of tongues really had not worked for me yet. So my grandad prayed over me and taught me some simple things and the Holy Spirit showed up and I started speaking in tongues! That was pretty cool, but the teachings I was receiving at Confirmation class still weren’t fully comprehensible to me.

At our pre-Confirmation retreat I remember praying over one of my friends with Father Ed. I was holding out my hand to pray, but Father Ed took my hand and placed it on my friend. That single action spoke to me about how real the power of the Holy Spirit is. So I got confirmed, which was cool, but I needed something more. I got the Life of St. Francis by St. Bonaventure and began reading it along with the New Testament. I also received a little wooden cross, which I began wearing around my neck everyday and did so for the next four years.

Then I went to Pine Hills 1996. I was ready for it this time. I didn’t let the military stuff bug me too much. I wanted to go to the prayer meeting to see if God was there. At the prayer meeting Peter Herbeck spoke excitedly about giving your heart to Jesus. I remember him holding his hands like a cup and lifting them up to Jesus. That night some people were praying over him and I knew that this was the time. I either had to give my whole life to Jesus or there was no point in believing in God or going to church. I had to give everything to Him. So I cupped my hands and lifted them up, with my heart as an offering to Jesus. I remember the person praying for me whispering in my ear, “Jesus has seen and accepted your offering.” That was the greatest turning point in my life. God was no longer a thing I “didn’t get.” He was real. He was alive and he knew me and wanted me to know Him.

He is still my only Lord.

Mark G.

A Practical Approach To Prayer -- Dave Mangan

When approaching the idea of a prayer time, we easily admit that it is important. Yet sometimes the most practical details of life prevent us from actually doing it. Questions like “When and where should I do it?”, “What should I say?”, “How long should it be?” can defeat us if we allow them. To combat this I would like to offer the following practical suggestions. Have a specific time Each day pick a specific time that you plan to meet the Lord and commune with Him.. Remember that God deserves your prime time when you can give Him your full attention. Exactly what time that will be will depend on your circumstances. I would highly recommend praying in the morning before you attack the world (or it attacks you). Of course we want to be conscious of God’s presence at all times of the day, but be sure to have a special time when it’s just you and Him.

How Long? How long your prayer time should be depends on your situation. But I believe that 5 or 10 minutes regularly is better that an hour every once in a while. It’s fine to start small and let it grow into whatever amount of time that you can give regularly.

Location, location, location Try to have a specific place to meet Him each day – a quiet place where you will not be interrupted. For many of us this may not be possible on a regular basis. Don’t let that stop you, take what you can get.

How to begin Begin your prayer by acknowledging God’s presence and praise Him for it, regardless of how you feel at the moment. Remember the Lord has been eagerly awaiting this moment more than you have. He intends to enjoy it. Maybe you can also.

Forgive me ... Spend some time in repentance. Ask the Lord if there is anything between Him and you. If you feel conviction about anything confess it as sin and ask for forgiveness and healing. He is happy to set you free:

A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”

Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” (Mark 1:40,41).

Feed on the Word Read some scripture prayerfully and allow the Lord to speak to you about it. Notice what it says. Compare your life to it. Then consider how what you can change to apply it to your life. We need to be formed by His word.

Listen Take some time to just be quiet in His presence and adore Him. Let Him speak to you.

Bring your cares to Him Bring your requests before Him. Intercede for others.

Back to praise As your time of prayer draws to a close praise Him all the more. By this time we should be able to praise Him even better than we did at the beginning.

Record His word Keep a notebook handy as you pray to record what the Lord may have said to you. You can also jot down the lessons you have learned or insights you have gained. Don’t trust your memory.

It is blessed to give Share what you are learning with someone. There is a great blessing in sharing.

One final practical suggestion I would share is don’t become a slave to practical suggestions.! The things I have shared here are good practices that can support a strong prayer life. A list like this can also be intimidating. Do what you can in your life circumstances and don’t feel bad about. Don’t evaluate it. Just do it. The approach that is described in this list is certainly not the only way to proceed or even the best way for you. I offer these suggestions as possible things that can help to jumpstart a stalled prayer life – and we all seem to stall at times.

Our life with Jesus is supposed to be dynamic and full of surprises. The problem is we have formed some bad habits that do not allow Him to act freely. Some structures, rightly applied, can help us break these habits so that Jesus might break through into our lives, and we might truly know the freedom of the children of God!

More: Problems In Prayer

Brannstroms lead San Antonio Outreach

Brannstroms lead San Antonio Outreach Berta and Rune Brannstrom, former members of The Word of God are living in San Antonio, Texas, these days and heading up a ministry called the Nehemiah Intiative [see web site].  They have continued a mission to bring renewal and unity to the churches in their city.  Over the past year they organized a group of churches which targeted a particularly tough part of San Antonio known as the West Side.  Intercessors adopted all 160 streets in this area and prayed daily for them.

This summer over 40 churches joined in an outreach call SA2:10Call which ran for 8 days.  During that time 3 Vacation Bible Schools were offered, there was a job fair, a backpack give away, a festival with music, free haircuts and more.  Teams went to businesses and offered to pray for them.  In the process of blessing the business, several people gave their lives to the Lord and there were some healings!

God is at work brining transformation to cities all over the world – and he wants to do it here in Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti and Washtenaw County!  Let’s keep praying and serving as he leads us.

You can read more about the SA2:10Call in the note below from Rune Brannstrom to voluteers and hear a bit in the following video clip.

Dear SA210Call Volunteers and Friends of Nehemiah Initiative,

Greetings in the Name of King Jesus!  Thank you for making the West Side Outreach a great success!  Thank you for your faithfulness and for your patience in flowing with necessary changes in plans as we went along.  None of us can see the full picture of all God did.  Only God knows.  But one thing is certain.  The atmosphere on the West Side of San Antonio will never be the same.  God’s people joined together in unity to bring the love and the light of Jesus Christ to a once dark part of our city.  And you made a difference.

Some of the praise reports are:

• Approximately 400 volunteers from nearly 40 local churches and ministries crossed denominational, racial and cultural lines to participate.

• Several thousand adults, youth and children were served in different ways during the week.

• Vacation Bible School (VBS) took place in five locations during the week.  On Friday a couple hundred of very excited children enjoyed games and food at the West End Park and Garrett Center at the grand finale party!  They shouted, sang and quoted Scriptures to an adoring crowd of parents and friends.  The impact God made in their lives was obvious on their faces.

• Thanks to the clowns, face painters, and hot dog, cold drinks and pop corn servers. You made many youngsters happy!

• Hundreds of adults went through our health screening and job/education fair.

• Several teams visited businesses in our target area and asked if they could pray for them. Most were open to prayer resulting in several salvations and healings.  One man at a beauty salon wanted his wife prayed for but didn’t want any part of it himself.  He ended up giving his life to the Lord and receiving healing for his back that was scheduled for surgery the following week.

• An amazing team of intercessors, both Catholic and Evangelical representing various prayer organizations, joined forces to create a protective canopy of prayer, 24/7, over the target area, the leadership and the volunteers. The effect was tangible.

• One house was renovated and there are already plans for the second one.

• Several West Side churches participated, especially in providing lunches for the volunteers throughout the week.

• About 800 children received back packs and school supplies and many also took advantage of the free haircuts. Our hair cutters stood for hours—true heroes.

• We partnered with District 1 Councilwoman Mary Alice Cisneros and her assistant, Milli Hohensee for the job fair and the back pack giveaway.

• The talent show was an excellent way to welcome the community to participate in the festivities and the number one winner was a mime group from one of the West Side churches, St. Luke’s Baptist Church.

• Our volunteers at our prayer booth prayed for over 70 people and several healings occurred.

• Thanks to all of our musicians, singers, dancers and set-up and take-down people for their hard work.

• Thanks to all the servants who took care of countless details and to the Boy Scouts, who took care of cleaning up the grounds on the last night.

• A team from Crossbridge Church, who had been praying for that specific area, approached a staff member at one of the elementary schools to ask permission to pray on the school grounds.  The staff member introduced them to the principal who said, “Why do you want to pray out there?  It’s hot.  Come inside and pray.”  They were escorted by the school counselor into every corridor of the school where they prayed, welcomed the presence of God and blessed every classroom, staff member and student who would later attend school there.

• On Thursday evening, a staff person for an elected official asked the speaker to make declarations over the West Side to break strongholds. A powerful time of prayer ensued.  The following day a major prostitution ring in the target area was busted by the San Antonio Police Department!  

• The following media covered the SA210Call: KDRY, KTSA, KEDA, WOAI, Telemundo, Univision, The Beacon and The Southside Reporter.  KDRY.com and CityPact.com have reports and videos.

In His Joy,

Rune Brannstrom and the Nehemiah Initiative Team

Crazy Kingdom Math

Crazy Kingdom Math “But Lord,” Gideon asked, “how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” (Judges 6:12)  Gideon is asking a perfectly reasonable question.  We have all been there, in fact, this is where we live most of the time.  Who am I, who are we, to accomplish great things for the Lord?  The problem is not with the accuracy of our vision.  But rather with it limit.  We are correct to say we are not up to the task of ushering in God’s kingdom.  We don’t have the leaders, the wisdom, the power, the money, the energy.  True, and a healthy expression of humility – as far as it goes. 

The Lord goes on to say to Gideon, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike down the Midianites, every one of them.” (Judges 6:13)  Gideon’s vision is humble and accurate, but limited.  He is not seeing ‘But I will be with you’.  When the Lord is with us what is possible radically changes.  One plus the Lord becomes the majority in any situation!  Gideon goes on to gather a massive army to deliver Israel and the Lord says, ‘too many’.  He reduces it to 10,000, still a pretty comfortable force to have at your disposal, but the Lord again says, ‘too many’.  Finally it is whittled down to a mere 300 and the Lord says, ‘that’s the right size’.

God, the Creator, is the one who established the laws of physics and mathematics which proceed and interact in orderly and predictable fashion.  But when it comes to delivering people and establishing His Kingdom reign, He often employs Crazy Kingdom Math:

• Five will chase a hundred, a hundred chase ten thousand (Lev 26:7-8)
• Israelite ‘grasshoppers’ will ‘eat up’ the land of fortified cities and giants (Num 13:31-14:9)
• A widow’s 2 cooper coins are more than all the gifts of the wealthy (Mk 12:41-44)
• Five loaves and 2 fish can feed five thousand – with leftovers! (Matt 14:17-21)
• One hundred and twenty disciples are sent to be witnesses to all the world (Acts 1)

The key is never the inherent strength of the people, but that ‘I will be with you’ and ‘you will receive power’. 

It delights the Lord to operate this way.  As Paul says:

Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”  1 Cor 1:26-31

Paul is not being very complementary of the Corinthians, but he is being totally honest.  And like them, we are also the ‘lowly, despised, things that are not’, but we are chosen and in Christ.  In Him is our confidence.

It is pretty easy to say, ‘one plus God is a majority’, or to acknowledge that we are nothing and God is our power.  How do you think Gideon and his 300 men felt looking at their ridiculous clay-pot-covered torches and rams horns as they hid in the bushes outside the camp of the Midianites, as numerous as locusts?  At such a moment is even easier to say, ‘I really am the least of the smallest tribe, what am I doing here?  Who do I think I am?’  Or we might say, ‘Maybe when we were younger or there were more of us or we had more impressive leaders or… then we could have done something noteworthy, but not now.’

At this critical juncture, God allowed Gideon to overhear one Midianite telling another of the dream he had foretelling the overthrow of the Midianites by Gideon.  It recalled him to the spiritual reality and he could say to his men, ‘Get up, the Lord has given the Midianite camp into our hands.’  And the Lord has been likewise saying to us, ‘I am not done with you, I still intend to use you, get up and get ready to get into the game’.  Maybe he has been giving some of you visions and dreams, as well?

So how do we enter into Crazy Kingdom Math?

1. Be honest about who we are – we can’t screw up our courage and increase our fruitfulness by pretending to be someone we are not.  It is OK to be five loaves and a couple of fish.
2. Fix our eyes on Him – ‘I am with you’ is the crucial reality.  Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:24).  He has given us His own Spirit.
3. Give our whole lives to Him – the widow put her whole life in the Lord’s hands when she gave all that she had to live on.  Do we have goals or portions of our lives that we have walled off from Him?  “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matt 6:33)
4. Step out – John Wimber used to say that faith is spelt R-I-S-K!  We do well to humbly acknowledge that we are just a few loaves and fishes.  It is good to confess that the Lord is holding us in His mighty hands.  But until we are broken and distributed we will not see the 5000 fed.  And no leftovers!

For those of us in The Word of God, recalling and living these truths is not just a path to fulfilling some particular mission goals, it is itself a key aspect of our mission.  The Lord has called us to live as a people who are characterized by this surrendered and empowered and fruitful life as a sign and a means for others to enter into it, as well.  In our Covenant we acknowledge that He has called us ‘to give our whole lives to Him, to follow His Son, Jesus, and to live more and more in the Holy Spirit’, He who is our ‘all in all’.  He has told us that it was not for our own sake alone that He has called us, but for the sake of those He is drawing to Himself.

When are you too few and too weak to be used by the Lord?  When you are one man and one woman, and them as good as dead?  When you are 120 frightened disciples hiding in an upper room?  When you are four young men praying in an apartment above a drug store?  When you are a hundred or so normal folks praying and looking for God to bring transformation?  The answer of Kingdom history and Kingdom math is – never!

Reflections on Vision: 2 Copper Coins, by Martha Balmer

I have become more and more conscious lately of my spiritual poverty. In his kindness, the Lord has been shining a light on the gulf between my intentions, standards and beliefs and my actual thoughts and actions. Inspirations conceived in my heart stay there, unborn, well past their due dates. Inward irritation and laziness blight simple acts of kindness before they bloom. Grudging thoughts mitigate services given without outward complaint. I’ve become acutely aware of my inner eye rolling when certain people come into view. When it’s time to pray, I don’t feel like it…

In short, my love is impoverished. My offering is poor.

Last Monday evening I was at the Community Office with a dozen others, praying and listening to the Lord, when the image of the poor widow and her two copper coins came to my mind. I felt the Lord nudging me to get up, go to the table at the back of the room where I’d set my purse, and get out two pennies.

I sat on it for a little while, but I can truthfully say that I’ve been working on bringing those inspirations into actual existence, and I shortly got up and got the pennies. I just grabbed the first two that I touched. It turned out one was Canadian. Even poorer.

That evening I was aware as always of the imperfection of my prayer and worship, how distracted and tired and even reluctant it is. But I looked at the pennies. I imagined myself putting them down on the floor in the middle of the room, and in my heart that’s what I did. Immediately I found it easier to pray and—most importantly—to let go of the imperfection of my prayer. It didn’t matter. Neither the strength, purity nor accuracy of it were any longer material to the task. I found I wasn’t being given the grace to give a better gift, only the grace to give it all.

I had always thought of the widow’s mite as a problem of quantity only. The wealthy were putting large amounts into the treasury, and she had only two coins. But this experience is pointing out to me that the problem of quality is part of the story as well. She only had copper to give, while the wealthy were undoubtedly donating silver and gold. I have never been too worried about the amount I have to give. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt any responsibility to produce something that I didn’t actually have. “The gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he has not.” But while I have accepted grace for this one kind of poverty, I have been denying it for another.

Importance of Baptism in the Holy Spirit — Ralph Martin

The 40^th anniversary of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal and our 40^th anniversary in The Word of God have led me to go back to think and pray and study the Scriptures again to see what I really think about this thing that we call “Charismatic Renewal”. We have also just celebrated the feast of Pentecost which was originally a Jewish feast. They gathered together to celebrate harvest, the first fruits, and also celebrate the giving of the law on Mt. Sinai. It is very significant that Jesus fulfilled his promise to baptize in the Holy Spirit on the Jewish feast of Pentecost because it’s the way of the harvest, the first fruits that are coming to birth, the church coming to birth. It also points to the law which is now being placed in the heart, the fulfillment of all those prophecies about the Lord putting his own Spirit, his own heart, his own law into our hearts so that nobody would need to say to their neighbor ‘know the Lord’ but everybody would know the Lord. Pentecost is the name the feast on which something happened. It doesn’t really tell us WHAT happened. What happened was that the disciples were baptized in the Holy Spirit. That’s the substance of what happened on the day of Pentecost. So when we celebrate Pentecost, what we are really celebrating is people being baptized in the Holy Spirit. This is the language that really Scripture uses. This is the language that each of the four Gospels use, John the Baptist uses, Jesus uses, Peter, the apostle, uses. This is what they described happened on the day of Pentecost people got ‘baptized in the Holy Spirit’.

The New Testament takes the issue of being baptized in the Holy Spirit very seriously. In Matthew 3, John the Baptist is preaching and he’s a little ticked off at the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to get baptized because he doesn’t believe they are sincere. He says don’t presume to say ‘we have Abraham as our Father, for I tell you God can raise up children to Abraham from these stone. Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. Mt 3:9-11 This is kind of tough language! It says your repentance had better be sincere. If you claim to be turning away from sin and turning towards God but it’s not sincere, you are going to be cut off and thrown into the fire!

Now we know that John the Baptist was kind of rough around the edges, we know he lived in the desert, and this was his language. But Jesus adopts the same language. In John’s gospel, chapter 15, he says those of you who are bearing fruit will be pruned so you can bear more fruit. Those who aren’t bearing the true fruits of repentance, those who aren’t bearing the true fruits of Christian life, those whose faith really isn’t being expressed in good works and charity are going to be cut off and thrown into the fire! So this language of John the Baptist is being taken up by Jesus. This is kind of serious stuff!

Baptism in the Spirit is a serious issue The Word of God is a serious Word – it is about life and death, it’s about heaven and hell, it’s about salvation and condemnation and it makes a difference how you respond to this Word and how you live in accordance with it. John goes on to say ‘I am baptizing you with water for repentance, but the One who is coming after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand. He will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.’ (Matt 3:11-12) So there is an apocalyptic, eschatological dimension to this whole issue of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. This pouring out of the Holy Spirit is intended to cleanse the human race, that those who receive the cleansing, those who receive the purifying will bear fruit and be gathered like wheat into the Lord’s barn. But those who resist the purification, those who resist the cleansing, those who resist the Spirit run the risk of being thrown into the unquenchable fire because they’ve dried up and don’t bear fruit.

Something more is needed Now Jesus, himself, uses several terminologies to talk about what’s going to happen. Sometimes he talks about the promise of the Father, sometimes he talks about being baptized in the Holy Spirit, and sometimes he talks about being clothed with power from on high.

Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. And he said to them thus it was written that the Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance for the forgiveness of sin would be preached in his name for all the nations who came from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold I am sending the promise of my Father upon you, but stay in the city until you are clothed in power from on high. Luke 24:46-49

Despite having three years of the best teaching that anybody could ever have, besides having personal attention and personal spiritual direction, personal formation from Jesus, and despite being instructed by Jesus in his resurrection appearances, and despite having seen the Risen Lord -- Jesus said ‘you are not ready yet’. There is something else that has to happen. You could know everything, you could have seen everything, you could be witnesses to the Resurrection, but something else has to happen to make it all come together. So wait until that happens, and what you need is to receive the promise of the Father.

Acts 1:3 says, “He presented himself alive to them by many proofs after he had suffered.” Jesus spent time with the Apostles after rising from the dead, appearing to them during forty days and speaking to them about the word of God -- more teaching, more explanation. Remember, Jesus would say something and the Apostles would say ‘we don’t get that, Lord, could you explain that to us in plain language’. So Jesus would explain it to them in plain language. They got A LOT of teaching, they got a lot of instruction, but it wasn’t enough to carry out the mission.

When Jesus met with them he enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem but “to wait for the promise of the Father about which you have heard me speak”. “John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit” Acts 1:5. This is the language of Jesus. When they had gathered together, they asked him ‘Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom of Israel?’ So even despite the Risen Lord explaining things to them, they still don’t get it. They said ‘Are you going to throw the Romans out now -- should we get our weapons now? are you going to throw them out now? So having three years of instruction wasn’t enough, seeing the miracles wasn’t enough, seeing the risen Lord and being taught by him for forty days wasn’t enough.

Jesus said ‘don’t get into this end time speculation, focus on your task. “It’s not for you to know the times or the seasons that the Father has established by his own authority but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:7-8 So don’t worry about that kind of stuff. I told you what you need to know but what you need to do now is receive the power of the Holy Spirit, be baptized in the Spirit and get on with the mission that I’ve given you to do and let the Father take care of those other things. So then they waited and they prayed. And then it happened – the day of Pentecost.

This is it When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim. Acts 2:1-4 ‘A crowd gathered and it said they were all astounded and bewildered and they said to one another ‘what does this mean?’ Acts 2:12 Well, here comes the answer to their question. What does the experience of Pentecost mean? What does being baptized in the Holy Spirit mean?

Peter stands up and says what it means, what the whole thing has been about. This is what Moses prophesized, this is what the Psalms spoke about, this is what the prophets talked about, this is what Joel prophesized, this is what David prophesized. This is it! This is the fulfillment of God’s plan for pouring out the Holy Spirit because his Son Jesus is truly the Messiah, sitting at the right hand of the Father. Peter quotes all the Scriptures. Now how did Peter know this, probably Jesus told him! It’s all kind of coming back to him now. Later on we are going to see Peter saying, ‘and then I remembered what the Lord said’. The Holy Spirit is doing what Jesus said the Holy Spirit would do. He is reminding people when they need to be reminded what this is all about, recalling the words of Jesus.

People were saying ‘what are we to do, my brothers’. And Peter said to them ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you, too, will receive this gift of the Holy Spirit. For this promise is made to you and your children and to all who are far off whom the Lord our God will call.’ Acts2:38-39 Immediately Peter says ‘this isn’t just for us’. And it’s not just for you and it’s not just for your children, it’s for EVERYBODY whom the Lord is calling to himself.

Not just for the Apostles So the first significant thing here is that this isn’t just a unique experience to get the church off the ground. This isn’t just for the special leadership group that the Lord would gather together. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Peter says ‘this is for you and this is for your children, and this is for everyone whom the Lord is calling to himself.’ He is making a very strong proclamation that this being baptized in the Holy Spirit is for everybody.

As we look on in the book of Acts, we’re going to see that this is an important pastoral strategy that the Apostles had in mind. They are serious about seeing that everybody that they minister to get baptized in the Holy Spirit. They are concerned that every new group of converts comes into the same experience that they had with day of Pentecost. What was that experience? The experience of being baptized in the Holy Spirit, clothed with power from on high, receiving the promise of the Father.

What were the conditions that allowed the Apostles, the disciples, in the Upper Room to get baptized in the Holy Spirit? First of all, they were taught about it. They knew the truth about it even though they did not fully understand it. They believed the Word of God, they obeyed the Word of God to stay in the city, and they prayed for the fulfillment of the Word of God. These are the same conditions that are available today. How can people get baptized in the Holy Spirit? They need to get taught about it. They need to believe it. They need to do what the Lord asks them to do, repent and believe. They need to pray for the fulfillment of it. It’s being revealed. It’s not an esoteric mystery where some people get baptized in the Spirit and some don’t. This is for everybody. How it happens is by hearing the Word, believing the Word, obeying the Word, and praying for its fulfillment.

Everyone needs to be baptized the Spirit Acts 8:14-15 ‘When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. When they arrived, they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.’ Now you know we cannot be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus without receiving something of the Holy Spirit, because that’s how we become Christians, that’s how we get connected to God. So these Samaritans must have received something of the Holy Spirit, but not enough. Something was missing, the Apostles could tell. Something was missing.

Haven’t you had that experience? You’re talking to somebody and they’re Christians, but something is missing. I had a priest in class this last semester and we were talking about being baptized in the Holy Spirit. This is something that Peter Williamson and I and others teach about it at the Seminary and actually pray for people to receive! But we were talking about baptism in the Spirit in one of my classes and one of the conservative Catholics in the classroom said ‘are you trying to tell me that I’m missing something in my Christian life?’ Well, this Irish priest piped up and said ‘you’re right that I’m trying to tell you that’. He didn’t back off. It’s true, there’s more! Don’t be shy or embarrassed about saying that there’s more. The Apostles, the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit want people to know what’s available and want us to tell them.

Acts 2:18-19 Then they laid hands of them and received the Holy Spirit. When Simon (the magician) saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money and said, "Give me also this power so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of magicians following Bishops around these days saying ‘how much would it cost for me to be able to do that myself! But something happened there that made Simon said ‘hey, that’s pretty cool’. Something really happened there. You could see the difference in these people. The Holy Spirit really fell on them.

The Lord wants to do more. It’s not just about being baptized and confirmed in a rote kind of way or getting a little bit of the Holy Spirit. You’ve got to be baptized in the Holy Spirit and that’s what it means to be a Christian. That is what the Apostles are concerned about.

Acts 10 You know the whole story about Cornelius and his household, a God-fearing Roman, and how Peter was praying and the Lord told him to go hang out with the Gentiles. Peter says ‘that’s against my religion, Lord’. The Lord says ‘well, guess what, I’m going to expand your notion of religion, I’m bigger than you thought I was. I love people more than you think I do. I want more people to be included in salvation than you think so go do what I tell you’. So Peter obeyed. That’s one of the reasons why the Lord chose Peter; he ended up doing what the Lord wanted him to do. While Peter was speaking to Cornelius and his household telling them about Jesus, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who were listening to the word. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles – [How do they know the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Gentiles?] -- for they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God. Acts 10:44-46 There was some manifestation of the Spirit. There was some indication that something had been released in them that allowed them to praise and worship God and manifest some charismatic gifts of the Spirit. Then Peter said, "Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit-- [listen to this!] -- even as we have.” So what he is saying is the same thing that happened to us happened to them. They received the Holy Spirit in the same way as we have.

Not just for then, but for now There is a temptation to build a little shrine around Pentecost and talk about it as a special moment when the church first began. But Peter is able to tell us NO, NO, NO, don’t do that! This is a permanent reality that the Lord wants to give each new group of Christians. This is something that Jesus wants to do. It wasn’t just for the Apostles.

In Acts 11 Peter gets into trouble for baptizing Cornelius’ household. People thought the cart went before the horse. You were supposed to get baptized first then receive the Holy Spirit Well God can do whatever he wants in whatever order he wants. Peter defends himself saying ‘As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. Then I remembered what the Lord had said: 'John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.' So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God?" When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, "So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life too." Acts11:15-18

In Acts 15 we have the whole debate about what should be done with the Gentiles, do we have to follow Mosaic Law. Peter got up and said to the Apostles, “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. God, who knows the heart bore witness by granting them the Holy Spirit, just as he did us.” Acts 15:7-9 There’s a definite identification of this subsequent experience of the Spirit as being the same as what happened to the Apostles.

This is purposeful. Luke is purposely showing us that it’s really important that each new group of Christian converts wherever they are at when you meet them need to be brought into this experience of the Holy Spirit and need to be baptized in the Holy Spirit or they are not going to have a full deck of cards. The Apostles didn’t have a full deck of cards until they were baptized in the Holy Spirit. People today can have great teaching, they can even have experiences of God, but if they’re not baptized in the Holy Spirit, everything doesn’t come together in a certain way. When we are baptized in the Holy Spirit we say ‘this is it – this is what it is all about’. The Holy Spirit is poured out in the hearts, the love of God is poured our in our hearts, we want to tell people about Jesus. We can’t become witnesses unless you experience his love that allows you to be witnesses and that is why being baptized in the Holy Spirit is so important. I’m convinced that being baptized in the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential and important. The Lord wants us not to be embarrassed or ashamed about it. We should tell anybody we possibly can about it because it’s really important for the church and the world for every individual to be baptized in the Holy Spirit.

Well, Sister Debbie, who was with us at the beginning talked about “the beginning” and giving ourselves to the Lord with the generosity that we gave ourselves to the Lord in the beginning. One of the reasons why we gave ourselves to the Lord generously at the beginning is because we experience the Lord’s generosity to us, pouring out his love to our hearts through the Holy Spirit. And I think that is the secret for us giving ourselves to God is renewing our experience of the Lord really giving himself to us.

Before I go any further I want to say that I miss Mary Rickloff at the Hospitality table over there. What a faithful woman, what a faithful daughter of the Lord, who persevered to the end. A couple of years ago I started making little honor rolls of the saints who I’ve known, people I’ve known who’ve died in the Lord (noble servants of the Lord, and I’m going to add Mary to that list) but she certainly is happier now than she was even at Word of God Prayer Meetings. And she is probably being more effective and fruitful than she ever was as she’s drawing her intercession to the on-going intercession of Christ who is continuing to intercede for us who are still on the journey. So we thank God for Mary and remember her with gladness. ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ And then Michael talked about the experience of Moses on Mt. Sinai and the experience of the Lord passing by. Now, Phil first asked me to give this talk at the Anniversary Gathering back in November. Just because how things unfolded it didn’t happen and we had some scheduling questions, but here we are.

What happened last year was that it was the 40^th anniversary of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal and the 40^th anniversary of The Word of God community that was inspired by that. And I got asked a number of times to talk about what’s been the significance of these last 40 years and what has the Lord been doing. And that led me to go back to actually think and pray and study to look at the Scriptures again to see what I really think about this thing that we call “Charismatic Renewal” and this thing that we’ve experienced with the Holy Spirit. And even though we’re not celebrating the 40^th anniversary any more, we did just celebrate the feast of Pentecost. And so it’s relevant. It would have been relevant if it were in the dead of winter thirty-five years from now --no connection -- you know the Holy Spirit is always relevant! But one of the things about the feast of Pentecost is that that wasn’t a Christian feast. That was a Jewish feast. They gathered together on the Jewish feast day where they celebrated harvest, the first fruits. Then they came to also celebrate the giving of the law on Mt. Sinai. And so it is very significant that Jesus fulfilled his promise to baptize in the Holy Spirit on the Jewish feast of Pentecost because it’s the way of the harvest, the first fruits that are coming to birth, the church coming to birth. It’s also a way in which the law is now being place in the heart of all those prophecies that have been long listened to and long meditated on about the Lord putting his own Spirit, his own heart, his own law into our hearts so that nobody would need to say to their neighbor ‘know the Lord’ but everybody would know the Lord. So this was kind of happening.

We’ve talked about a New Pentecost and we’ve also talked about how Pope Benedict XVI when he was in New York recently said “As you give thanks for past blessings, and look to the challenges of the future, let us implore from God the grace of a new Pentecost for the Church in America. May tongues of fire combine in burning love of God and neighbor with zeal for the spread of Christ’s kingdom descended on all present.” It was kind of a fiery call for an on-going, new Pentecost. Pentecost is the description of the day or the feast on which something happened. It doesn’t really tell us what happened. What happened? What happened was that the disciples were baptized in the Holy Spirit. That’s what happened. That’s the substance of what happened on the day of Pentecost. So we celebrate Pentecost, but what we’re really celebrating is people being baptized in the Holy Spirit. This is the language that really Scripture uses. This is the language that each of the four Gospels use. This is the language that Jesus uses. This is the language that John the Baptist uses. This is the language that Peter, the apostle, uses. This is what they described happened on the day of Pentecost ‘people got baptized in the Holy Spirit.

I don’t have time to go through all of this but I do have time to through some of it because as I was reflecting on all of this I was struck by how insistent the apostles were that each new group of converts experience the same thing they did on the day of Pentecost. The often used that language, and I’m just going to run through some of this. All four Gospels speak about Jesus baptizing in the Holy Spirit. I’m just going to take a little segment here from Matthew’s Gospel (chapter 3). John the Baptist is preaching, he’s a little ticked off at the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to get baptized; he doesn’t believe they are sincere. He says you brood of vipers (gee, John laid a little kind of guilt on any person; he wasn’t really winning friends and influencing people) he says, who ticked you off, who gave you an inside rating (???) to produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance. And he says don’t presume to say we have Abraham as our Father, for I tell you God can raise up children to Abraham from these stone. Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

So now, this is kind of tough language. It says your repentance had better be sincere. If you really want to be turning away from sin and turning towards God and if that’s not sincere, you are going to be cut off and thrown into the fire. Now we knew that John the Baptist was kind of rough around the edges, we knew he lived in the desert, and this was his language. But Jesus adopts the same language. In John’s Gospel where he says those of you who are bearing fruit will be pruned so you can bear more fruit. Those who aren’t bearing the true fruits of repentance, those who aren’t bearing the true fruits of Christian life, those who faith really isn’t being expressed in good works and charity are going to be cut off and thrown into the fire. So this language of John the Baptist is being taken up by Jesus; this is kind of serious stuff.

The word of God is a serious word – it is about life and death, it’s about heaven and hell, it’s about salvation and condemnation and it makes a difference how you respond to this word and how you live in accordance with it. John goes on to say I am baptizing you with water for repentance, but the One who is coming after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand. He will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. So there is apocolytic, eschential (????????) dimension into this whole thing that this Baptism in the Holy Spirit, this pouring out of the Holy Spirit is intended to cleanse the human race, that those who receive the cleansing, those who receive the purifying will bear fruit and be gathered like wheat into the Lord’s barn. But those who resist the purification, those who resist the cleansing, those who resist the Spirit run the risk of being thrown into the unquenchable fire because they’ve dried up and don’t bear fruit. So this is the context that being baptized in the Spirit is being introduced.

Now Jesus, himself, uses several terminologies to talk about what’s going to happen. Sometimes he talks about the promise of the Father, sometimes he talks about being baptized in the Holy Spirit, and sometimes he talks about being clothed with power from on high. Luke’s Gospel (chapter 24) then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. And he said to them thus it was written that the Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance for the forgiveness of sin would be preached in his name for all the nations who came from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold I am sending the promise of my Father upon you, but stay in the city until you are clothed in power from on high. Despite having three years of the best teaching that anybody could ever have, besides having personal attention and personal spiritual direction, personal formation from Jesus, and despite being instructed by Jesus in his resurrection appearances, and despite having seen the Risen Lord, Jesus said ‘you are not ready yet’. There’s something else that has to happen. You could know everything, you could have seen everything, you could be witnesses to the Resurrection, but something else has to happen to make it all come together. So wait until that happens, and what that is is receiving the promise of the Father.

Acts Chapter 1. He presented himself alive to them by many proofs after he had suffered. So Jesus spent time with them after rising from the dead, appearing to them during forty days and speaking to them about the word of God, more teaching, more explanation. Remember, Jesus would say something and the Apostles would say ‘we don’t get that Lord, could you explain that to us in plain language. So Jesus would explain that to them in plain language. They got A LOT of teaching, they got a lot of instruction, but it wasn’t enough to carry out the mission.

Well, meeting with them and enjoining them not to depart from Jerusalem but to wait for the promise of the Father about which you have heard me speak. This is has been a theme of Jesus’ instruction, he’s referring back to previous teaching, it’s not a one planned thing. This is what Jesus says John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. This is the language of Jesus; this is the only profanative use of the language baptism of the Spirit too – it’s difficult -- (I couldn’t catch his afterthought comment at 12:08 into the tape) When they had gathered together, they asked him ‘Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom of Israel?’ So even despite the Risen Lord explaining things to them, they still don’t get it. They said ‘Are you going to throw the Romans out now -- there should be a representative – are you going to throw them out now? So having three years of instruction wasn’t enough, seeing the miracles wasn’t enough, seeing the risen Lord and being taught by him for forty days wasn’t enough. Jesus said ‘don’t get into this infine (????? 12:46) speculation, focus on your debts. It’s not for you to know the times or the seasons that the Father has established by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. So don’t worry about that kind of stuff. I told you what you need to know but what you need to do now is receive the power of the Holy Spirit, be baptized in the Spirit and get on with the mission that I’ve given you to do and let the Father take care of those other things. When he said this they were looking on as into the cloud and looked away and the angel said ‘why are you looking into the sky the same Jesus that you saw has been taken away and will come back in the same way. So then they waited and they prayed. And then it happened – the day of Pentecost.

A later passage (Acts 2). When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.

And a crown gathered and it said they were all astounded and bewildered and they said to one another ‘what does this mean?’ Well, here comes the answer to our question. What does these strengths of Pentecost mean? What does being baptized in the Holy Spirit mean? So Peter stands up and says what this means is this is it. This is what the whole thing has been about. This is what Moses prophesized, this is what the Psalms spoke about, this is what the prophets talked about, this is what Joel prophesized, this is what David prophesized. This is it! This is the fulfillment of God’s plan for pouring out the Holy Spirit because of his Son Jesus truly being the Messiah sitting at the right hand of the Father. And so, he quotes all the Scripture. Now how did Peter know this, probably Jesus told him, you know, it’s all kind of coming back now, you know. And now later on you are going to see Peter saying, ‘and then I remembered what the Lord said. And then a little later on he said ‘and then I remember what the Lord said about being baptized in the Holy Spirit’. And the Holy Spirit is doing what Jesus said the Holy Spirit would do. It’s reminding people when they need to be reminded what this is all about recalling the words of Jesus and see it happening. So people were gathering and saying ‘what are we to do, my brothers’. And Peter said to them ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you, too, will receive this gift of the Holy Spirit. For this promise is made to you and your children and to all who are far off whom the Lord our God will call.’ Immediately Peter says ‘this isn’t just for us’. And it’s not just for you and it’s not just for your children and it’s for everybody whom the Lord is calling to himself.

So the first significant thing here is that this isn’t just a unique experience to get the church off the ground, this isn’t just for the special leadership group that the Lord would gather together. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Peter says ‘this is for you and this is for your children, and this is for everyone whom the Lord is calling to himself. So there’s a very strong proclamation that this being baptized in the Holy Spirit is for everybody.

Now we’re going to see that this is an important pastoral strategy that the Apostles had in mind that they are serious about seeing that everybody that they minister to get baptized in the Holy Spirit. They’re concerned that this new group of converts come into the same experience that they had with day of Pentecost. What was that experience, the experience of being Baptized in the Holy Spirit, clothed with power from on high, receiving the promise of the Father.

What were the conditions that allowed the Apostles, the Disciples, in the Upper Room to get Baptized in the Holy Spirit? First of all, they were taught about it, right. They knew the truth about it even though they did not fully understand it. They believed the word of God, they obeyed the word of God to stay in the city, and they prayed for the fulfillment of the word of God. And these are the same conditions that are available today. How can people get Baptized in the Holy Spirit. They need to get taught about it. They need to believe it. They need to do what the Lord asks them to do, repent and believe. They need to pray for the fulfillment of it. It’s being revealed. It’s not an esoteric mystery where some people get Baptized in the Spirit and some don’t. This is for everybody. And how it happens is by hearing the word, believing the word, obeying the word, and praying for it’s fulfillment.

Acts chapter 8. When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. When they arrived, they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Now you know you cannot be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus and receive something of the Holy Spirit because that’s how we become Christians, that’s how we get connected to God. So we must receive something of the Holy Spirit, but not enough. Something was missing, the Apostles could tell. Something was missing. Sometimes don’t you have that experience? You’re talking to somebody and they’re Christians, but something’s missing. I had a priest in class this last semester and we were talking about being Baptized in the Holy Spirit and just something that Peter Williamson and myself and others teach about it at the Seminary and actually pray for people, you know. But we were talking about Baptism in the Spirit and one of the conservative Catholics in the classroom said ‘are you trying to tell me that I’m missing something in my Christian life?’ so this Irish priest said ‘you’re darned right that I’m trying to tell you that’. He didn’t back off, you know. That’s true, there’s more, isn’t there! Don’t be shy or embarrassed about saying that there’s more.

The Apostles, the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit want people to know what’s available and wants us to tell them. Then they laid hands of them and received the Holy Spirit. When Simon (the magician) saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money and said, "Give me also this power so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit. There’s not a lot of magicians following Bishops around these days saying how much would it cost for me to be able to do that myself, you know. But something happen there that Simon said ‘hey, that’s pretty cool’. Something really happened there. You could see the difference in these people; the Holy Spirit really fell on them. And that’s why Peter and John went down to pray with them because more, the Lord wanted to do more.

And the Lord wants to do more. It’s not just about being Baptized and Confirmed in a rote kind of way or get a little bit of the Holy Spirit. You’ve got to be Baptized in the Holy Spirit and that’s what it means to be a Christian. It’s got to be a process to be concerned about. Okay.

Acts Chapter 10. You know the whole store about Cornelius and his household, a God-fearing Roman, and Peter’s praying and the Lord tells him to go hang out with the Gentiles and Peter says ‘that’s against my religion Lord’ and the Lord says ‘well, guess what, I’m going to expand your notion of religion, I’m bigger than you thought I was. I love people more than you think I do. I want more people to be included in salvation than you think so go do what I tell you’. So Peter did. That’s one of the reasons why the Lord chose Peter; he ended up doing what the Lord wanted him to do. While Peter was speaking to Cornelius and his household telling them about Jesus, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who were listening to the word. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles (How do they know the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Gentiles?) for they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God. There was some manifestation of the Spirit. There was some indication that something had been released that allowed them to praise and worship God and manifest some charismatic gifts of the Spirit. Then Peter said, "Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit (then listen to this!) even as we have. So what he is saying is the same thing that happened to us happened to them. They received the Holy Spirit in the same way that we have.

So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

There is a temptation to build a little shrine around Pentecost and talk about it that it is a special moment when it first began. But Peter is able to tell us NO, NO, NO, don’t do that! This is a permanent reality that the Lord wants to give each new group of Christians. This is something that Jesus wants to do. It wasn’t good for us.

Acts Chapter 11. Peter gets into trouble for baptizing Cornelius’ household, you know, the cart went before the horse, you know you were suppose to get baptized first then receive the Holy Spirit Well God can do whatever he wants in whatever order he wants. We just have to clean up the pieces and set up a little bit Acts Chapter 11. Peter gets into trouble for doing this and he’s defending himself as he says As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. Then I remembered what the Lord had said: 'John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.' So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God?" When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, "So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life too."

Acts Chapter 15. The whole debate about what are we going to do with the Gentiles, do we have to follow Mosaic law, and so Peter got up and said to the Apostles Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. God, who knows the heart bore witness by granting them the Holy Spirit, just as he did us. So there’s a definite identification of this subsequent restraint (???) of the Spirit as being the same as it happened to the Apostles. Then, I’ll just mention this Acts chapter 19 Paul comes to Corinth and he finds the disciples and he says ‘did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers, and they answered him ‘we never even heard there is a Holy Spirit’. And he said ‘how were you baptized?’ – there’s something defective in their catechesis, something defective in the process of Christian initiation. It appears that they were willing to be baptized by the baptism of John through repentance so Paul fills in the pieces and he tells them about Jesus, when they heard this they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus and when Paul laid his hands upon them the Holy Spirit came upon them, they spoke in tongues and prophesized and altogether there were about twelve men.

This is purposeful. Luke is purposely showing us that it’s really important that each new group of Christian converts wherever they are aimed wherever you meet them need to be brought into this experience of the Holy Spirit and need to be Baptized in the Holy Spirit or you’re not going to have a full deck of cards. The Apostles didn’t have a full deck of cards until they were Baptized in the Holy Spirit. Now people today can have great teaching, they can even have experiences of God, but if they’re not Baptized in the Holy Spirit, it doesn’t come together in a certain way. Like when you say ‘this is it – this is what it is all about and the Holy Spirit is poured out in the hearts I want to tell people about Jesus. So you can’t become witnesses unless you experience his love that allows you to be witnesses and that is why being Baptized in the Holy Spirit is so important.

The subsequent fillings of the Holy Spirit (Acts chapter 4) a tough situation with the Apostles say ‘hey, man, we need more of the Holy Spirit and they prayed and the Spirit came where they were. There’s extra help in the Spirit at different times. You should go through Church history. Paul tells Timothy to ‘fan at the flame, to get to receive, then you let the Holy Spirit kind of die down and you kind of forget how important the Spirit is. You can let the embers get a little low. And Paul says ‘fan at the flames and get to where the Spirit is – (26.32) that it was the gift of one nation or whatever is true at our gift of the Spirit that we can fan at the flame the gift we’ve received and it is just important to do. So I tried to look at this again, and there is a lot more that I’ve looked at, I’ve looked at the history of the early Church, I’ve looked at the evidence of us being Baptized in the Holy Spirit and Charismatic gifts, kind of continuing on in the history of the Church, I’ve looked at theological interpretations of it, I’ve looked at contemporary Church teachings, and I’m convinced that being Baptized in the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential and important. The Lord wants us not to be embarrassed or ashamed about it. You can tell anybody you possibly can about it because it’s really important for the church and the world and every individual to be Baptized in the Holy Spirit. Amen

A Champion of Unity Passes Away

The church in Washtenaw County lost a great servant when Apostle Robert Hill of Christian Love Fellowship went home to the Lord on June 22.  Apostle Hill was the founding pastor of Christian Love Fellowship and had ministered in the area from the early 70’s.  In addition to raising up and overseeing a number of pastors and churches in different parts of the country, he helped found Power, Inc., a community development ministry here in Washtenaw county.  Apostle Hill was a founding member of the Pastors Alliance for County Transformation and served as the head of its Directional Team until the last few years when he battled ill health.  Many of us will remember him from the Hosanna events.  He often spoke and sometimes led a choir at these County-wide Palm Sunday celebrations.  He was a champion of Christian unity, especially concerned to see the divisions between Afro-American churches and other churches bridged.

Brotherly love was a very strong value for Apostle Hill and he emphasized that any real unity among the churches in our area had to be built on genuine relationship among the pastors, and the people.  He not only talked about this, but modeled it in the way he personally interacted with other leaders and the way he led his church to interact with other groups in the County.

Robert’s wife and co-pastor, Barbara, is carrying on the leadership of Christian Love Fellowship, so let’s pray for her, their family and the church.  And ask the Lord to raise up other champions of unity for His Body here in our County.

Husbands, Wives, Parents, Children -- Ralph Martin

 

Husbands, Wives, Parents, Children by Ralph Martin Revised Third Edition, Flame Ministries, Inc. Manila, Philippines, 1997

Unity TALK IS CHEAP, the saying goes, and that seems particularly true when it comes to talk about unity. These days, every politician and popular singer apparently has to give at least an occasional plea for love and commu­nity and people getting together. If you listened to all the talk, you might well be convinced that some wonderful new age of harmony and peace is dawning for our whole soci­ety, only to be disappointed by the next day's headlines.

For behind the rhetoric, the real trend in today's society is not toward greater unity, but toward more and more individualism. That is, after all, the era that proclaims "do your own thing" that tells each individual to pursue an independent happiness without much concern for others. Some social commentators see so much preoccupation with self in our society that they call us "the new narcissists."

In the face of a society that encourages everyone to pursue a separate course, Jesus calls his people to unity, even to perfect unity. It was for Christians of today as much as of any time that he prayed: "May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me, and I in you; I pray that they may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me" (John 17:21).

The unity that Jesus desires for his disciples is not the insubstantial stuff of casual talk; it is as real and complete as the unity that Jesus himself shares with his Father and the Holy Spirit. It is a unity that welds separate indi­viduals together into one body, able to move together un­der the direction of one head. Jesus calls us to be in perfect unity with one another and with him. He wants us to reflect in our relationships as sisters and brothers the same unity that exists in the life of the Trinity.

The call to unity is addressed even more directly to those Christians who are married. God intends the union of husband and wife to embody in a special way the total unity that he desires for all his people. He has designed man and woman to fit together in marriage, to pass from living as two separate individuals to a life as one body, one flesh. Even our reproductive design reflects this purpose: man and woman must unite to produce new life.

The book of Genesis emphasizes this fundamental intention when it describes the creation of man and woman. The account begins with the creation of man alone: "the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life" (2:7). But Gen­esis tells us that God was not satisfied with this solitary male: "It is not good that the man should be alone" (2:18). Note the contrast here with the phrase that describes God's satisfaction when his creation is completed: "And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good" (1:31). Something about man by himself was not good; he was incomplete, unfinished.

"So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh, and the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman" (2:21-22).

Taken superficially, this passage might seem to belittle women: "What do you mean, we got made out of someone's rib!" But Arab friends have told me that in their culture a person often calls his closest friend his "rib". "Joe down the block is my good friend, my rib." The word indicates that two people are very close and share a genuine bond of unity.

In the same way, Genesis uses the image of the rib to show how closely man and woman are bound together. They are made of the same substance; they share the same life. Adam recognized this at once when he awoke and saw the woman: “This at last is "bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh" (2:23).

That fundamental unity, we are told, is the reason why "a man leaves his father and mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh" (2:24).  In the Lord's plan, a husband and wife do not just live together on friendly terms. They cleave to one another — one of the strongest possible words to apply to a human relationship — and become one flesh. While "one flesh" obviously refers to the physical union of sexual intercourse, it also means that husband and wife become a new social entity, a unit that works as one.

"The man and his wife were both naked and were ashamed" (2:25). God's original plan for the union of and woman included no shame or guilt or disorder, there was peace and freedom.

We know that this original unity, and the harmony that marked it, did not last.  When men and women disrupted their relationship with God, they also disrupted the harmony between themselves.   Genesis tells us that after the fall God said to the woman: "I will greatly, multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth chil­dren, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you" (Gen. 3:16). To the man he said, "Cursed is the ground because of you; in toil shall you eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you; and you shall eat the plants of the field" (3:17-18).

What a change in the relationship of husband and wife! Where once unity and peace characterized their life together, now frustration and anxiety fill it.  Even the new life that springs from their union causes the woman pain. The man, meanwhile, is caught in an endless, painful struggle to make a living.

As a sign of this change, the man and woman now have clothing. The freedom and rightness that once marked their relationship has vanished. In its place has entered a sense of shame.

Fallen humanity never fully recovered the ideal of married unity that God offered the first man and woman. Even among God's chosen people, divorce — the mark of a final breaking of unity — was a common occurrence. As long as men and women were unable to restore their origi­nal union with God, they could not live up to God's design for their life together.

That is why Jesus' teaching is so important for our understanding of Christian marriage. According to the gos­pel of Matthew, some Pharisees tried to test Jesus by asking him: "Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?" (19:3).  At the time, Jewish authorities were divided into two camps on this question: some allowed divorce only on very strict grounds, others advocated more leniency. The Pharisees wanted Jesus to come down on one side or the other of the question so that he would antagonize half the people.

But Jesus' answer went beyond what the Pharisees probably expected. "Have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh*? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What there­fore God has joined together, let not man put asunder" (19:4-6}-

"The two shall become one flesh." With these words, Jesus reaffirms in the new covenant God's original plan for marriage. He tells us that husband and wife actually do become one unit, one flesh, and that God himself stands behind their union. God wills full union between them as a fundamental part of his plan and creation. Jesus allows no room for compromise on this issue, stating even more bluntly that "whoever divorces his wife... and marries an­other, commits adultery, and he who marries a divorced woman commits adultery" (19:9).

The gospel of Matthew, although not the other gos­pels that record this incident, allows a qualification to this statement: "except for unchastity" (19:9). The interpreta­tion of that passage has caused considerable controversy, and various Christian denominations now take quite differ­ent stances on permitting divorce. But for many centuries the church took a very strict position on divorce in keeping with Scripture.

I realize the plight of the many divorced Christians today, and I do not want to imply any judgment on their individual situations. That is up to the Lord and to the responsible authorities in the churches. Today, when so many people who marry in church are only nominally Christian, one can even question whether some partners actually contract a Christian marriage.

But the complexities of the divorce question should not distract us from the clear scriptural teaching that God wants the unity of husband and wife to remain unbroken. The book of Genesis tells us that this was his original inten­tion, and the gospels reaffirm that ideal for the Christian people. Its reaffirmation was anticipated in the Old Testa­ment by the prophet Malachi, who said,"...the Lord is wit­ness between you and the wife of your youth...she is your companion, your betrothed wife. Did he not make one being, with flesh and spirit?...You must then safeguard life that is your own, and not break faith with the wife of your youth. For I hate divorce, says the Lord, the God of Israel" (Mal. 2:14-16 NAB).

Paul came later to realize the full significance of the unbroken unity of marriage, saying, "This is a great fore­shadowing; I mean that it refers to Christ and the church" (Eph. 5:32 NAB). The fidelity of husband and wife is a sign of God's unbroken covenant love for his people. That is one reason why God insists on the unity of Christian mar­riage; he wants marriage to reflect his love and his life, to set before the world an image of his own relationship to the body of Christ.

Praying Is As Important as Breathing (1) -- Dave Mangan

One of the most important vehicles in maintaining any healthy relationship is communication. In our relationship with Jesus it is no different. Obviously then, prayer is an extremely important facet of our lives. We do this, not to keep God up to date or to keep Him on the ball, but rather, to grow in our relationship with Him and to be available to Him. This being the case, prayer deserves a lot of effort on our part. Even though we can all concede the importance of prayer, we also can easily confess great difficulty in doing it. Often these difficulties can get us to the point where we accept a very poor prayer life, or at least a lot less than what God wants for us.

His highest willingness Perhaps the first step in overcoming these difficulties is realizing that our attitude toward prayer may be wrong. Sometimes we can view God as someone who has laid an obstacle course before us, and if we successfully navigate it we get to speak with Him. But this attitude negates the very act of Jesus’ death and resurrection that gave us free access to the Father. I once heard Dr. Robert Cooke express this very well. He said, “Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance but laying hold of His highest willingness.”

We could start then by asking the Lord to reveal to us any poor attitudes that we may have. And then we can ask Him for the grace to let them go. We need to realize that prayer is one of the most exciting things we can do. I realize that it doesn’t often feel like that. I know that is the case for me. But that doesn’t change the truth – when we are praying we have the ear of the Master of the Universe! Any problems are on our part. We need to give Him our ear as well.

Necessary for survival It could be the case that we don’t value prayer enough. I’m sure if someone were to ask us if prayer is important we would all give the correct answer. But do our actions betray us? In reality, prayer is not just a Christian accessory, it is necessary for our survival.

Proverbs 4:23 says, “Keep your heart with all vigilance; for from it flow the springs of life.” The word “keep” here does not mean “keep” in the sense of being possessive. Rather it refers to keeping a garden, making sure that all is well and that life is coming forth. Being an active participant in our life with God is the only sure way of bringing forth real life in us, for it all comes from Him.

In short, we need to pray. If you find that your prayer life is poor, don’t give up. A poor prayer life is better than no prayer life. Just let it be a springboard to a better prayer life – step by step. Let us ask the Lord to help us and to bring us to the point that we can see that praying (however much time we spend doing it) is as important as breathing.

More -- A Practical Approach To Prayer