Have A Blessed New Year...see Psalm 1

I have just turned 40 so even though it’s a biblical number, we are going to deviate from 40 to 52 and from days to weeks…that right, I want 2008 to be a day by day experience of delighting in the presence of God. It was on my 40th Birthday that God impressed this chapter on me and I carved out a prayer based on this chapter. I want to expand on that prayer as I challenge us all to a high calling for this new year!

I have a longing for this year for Southside to be a place of deep feeling, sound thinking and right actions. We are on the very cusp of the landswap materializing and a new community being born right around us. There are necessary changes coming and we need to be ready and what better place to get direction than Psalm 1. This chapter gives us godly counsel for us to prospers for all the right reasons.

Over the past years we have walked through many different 40 day challenges from the purpose driven life, to discovering our SHAPE, 40 days of community and last year we walked through 40 days of lent and celebration as we looked at the different feasts of Israel.

Blessed is the man

The word blessed...

That word blessed can be somewhat overused and bland in the English language. The Hebrew term is much more descriptive, especially with its plural ending. A workable translation would be, "Oh, the happiness, many times over ..."There are two verbs in Hebrew meaning "to bless." One is b rak and the other, ' shar. Psalm 1 uses ' shar. What's the difference you ask? B rak is always used of God or by God; it is something God does or is; it is an act of grace, bestowment. On the other hand, ' shar is always used of and for man; the man who is said to be ' shar has done something to deserve the word being applied to him; it is a congratulating, a place of favour because of a decision made.

who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked


In this chapter, the reader is presented with some clear cut guidance and you are either moving in the direction of the wicked or the direction of the blessed. We have two directions, two lifestyles, two destinies. The Psalmist is standing at the doorway and calling us to choose life, choose being rooted, choose blessing. Often we think of wicked as being someone who is really evil, but here in this passage the wicked are those who choose to rule out God in their everyday living. One is God centered and the other is self centered.

The clearest example of this in the OT is Abraham and Lot (Gen 13:12-13) Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom. (13) Now the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the LORD.


Second, Samson thought he could handle a Philistine woman. Compromised values. The inherent risk and danger of dating a non believer

Who do you hold court with, whose words influence you to action. Who is it that you would call a close friend because as an old proverb says, ‘show me your friends and I’ll tell you who you are.’ Now there are certainly people hopefully in your life that are acquaintances and those who you love to see come to the Lord. We are talking about a different person here. The environment which you choose affects you. Spend enough time in the company of a person that always cursing and you will find yourself more easily led to curse. Hang out with people who are always doubting their faith and you will too. It is the law of attraction.

or stand in the way of sinners


Do we realize that we are on the wrong path? What does it mean to stand in the way of sinners? Is it that realization that we live in such an affluent culture that a trip to a third world country is what it takes to wake us to the reality that we are all too easily led astray. It is the same path of temptation that our non Christians battle with and it is the want for more. How easily do we adopt our culture’s habits and outlooks?


or sit in the seat of mockers.

To sit in the seat of mockers…is translated dwelling place, to be at home. The shift here moves from the soul to action, from action to decision, from decision to habit and finally habit to stronghold


2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
To delight is about the emotions and the thoughts. There is a longing, a yearning to really know the way. It is that motivation that David would also speak of when He said in Psalm 37:4 when we truly delight in Him, He will give us the desires of our heart.
Psalm 132:4,5 I will allow no sleep to my eyes, no slumber to my eyelids,
5 till I find a place for the LORD, a dwelling for the Mighty One of Jacob
That is the kind of passion that keeps you awake until You’ve met with God. Pray with me for that fire in our eyes and in our hearts.
Joshua 1:7,8

Delighting involves both our mind and heart. If we neglect the mind we can drift into a wrong understanding of God. If we neglect the heart, then we just have dead orthodoxy. We need to delight with our whole being, mind, emotions and will.

and on his law he meditates day and night

The idea of day and night has also been seen by many as literal morning and evening dwelling on God’s Word but other theologians have picked up on another meaning and that is the understanding of meditating on the LORD…YAHWEH, the personal covenanting God in light and darkness. The day represents when life is good, when we can see what God is doing. The night speaks to the pain, the lack of understanding, the discouragement, the lack of enlightenment.
O, how I love thy law! it is my meditation all the day.How sweet are thy words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! (119:97, 103)


Mark 1:35Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. If it is good for Jesus, it is good for me.

Delighting in the law… it is exciting, pleasing and powerful… it is transforming


Meditating on His Word - the early church fathers used a word called ‘ruminate’ and

For the Jewish people, it was the idea of a clean animal in Leviticus which was chew and rechew its own cud. For us it is that need for 'mental chewing' on the words of Scripture so that it really is absorbed into our being.

Never reduce Christianity to a matter of following rules, demands, resolution and your own willpower. Following Jesus is about who we love, what we delight in and what tastes good to us. John 3:19 states it best that when Jesus,’ the light came into the world and men loved darkness rather than light.’ The righteous and the wicked are separated by what they delight in… the revelation of God or the way of the world. So, you say, well, Jack, I’m not feeling it. My answer is this…pray for new taste buds on the tongue of your heart and meditate on the staggering promises of God’ Word.
We don’t naturally do this…we often starve ourselves hungry and then we wonder what’s wrong…you have to pray for the hunger. The ability to delight in God’s wisdom is a supernatural thing and that is why we desperately need to pray for it.
3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.
What is your root system like? We can’t see the roots of a beautiful tree. It is the hidden part of your life that makes you strong and beautiful.

George Müller lived from 1805 to 1898 and is famous for establishing numerous orphanages and relying on God for help in remarkable ways. Listen to his testimony about how and why to meditate on Scripture.
While I was staying at Nailsworth, I saw more clearly than ever, that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not, how much I might serve the Lord, how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man may be nourished.

What kind of fruit bearing tree do you know that has leaves that don’t wither…this is a very special kind of tree which takes us right back to the garden of Eden…. A place of perfection and real blessing.

The leaf does not wither… this person has joy because they have a vital relationship with God.


The Takeaway:

Three Things

1.There is a place where you can live where there is blessing
2. It comes with a cost, it won’t be easy. Growth in character and righteousness takes time.
3. The more you meditate on His Word, the more you delight in it and the more you delight in Him, the more you will meditate on Him

The goal of meditation is to know God better and to apply his word to our lives. This reaches well beyond just knowing facts about the Bible. It calls us to trust the God of the Bible.

Faith of A Child

I want to focus on what childlike faith look like as it represents our entrance into the kingdom. This passage teaches us the truth of childlike faith, humility and acceptance as we began life in the kingdom. It also represents the same attitude that we must embrace so that others may see the reality of kingdom life in us.

Jesus challenged any type of ‘doorkeeper’ mentality that kept people from coming to Him. He stripped away all the layers of man made rules and wanted people to discover Him with the wonder of a child. May we come today and experience the presence of Jesus with that kind of awe as we see Him through the eyes of a child.




MORPH…. to change and become like little children…


Let’s talk about children

They are unpredictable - You never know what they are going to say. They don’t have filters and embarrass us at times, but often they surprise you and we are captured by what they say….out of the mouth of babes right!

Is it time to do something unpredictable, something radical to recapture your faith?? Maybe it is time to draw outside the lines? Have you lost the gleam in your eyes, a faith that stand speechless in Jesus’ presence?



They are filled with wonder and love to play and dream- They can easily get lost in the moment of fresh discovery.

The critical issue facing the church is dullness. We cannot let ourselves fall into this slumber. The Good News has become okay news. Christianity is no longer life changing, it is life enhancing. God wants us to be ‘wide-eyed and mystified’ to steal a title from an album.

The greatest enemy to the faith states one writer maybe that we have Christians who are no longer astonished and amazed.

The story of Rylan’ faith…April 19th was a great day for me.

It was one of those days that I took Rylan to the rink for parent/ tot hockey and in the dressing room he started talking to me about when I get to be a grandpa, get grey hair and all that good stuff. Then the subject moved to dying and he was concerned about when I would die and so the conversation moved to heaven and how you get there. He then asked me, "So, when I go to the doctor, will he see Jesus in my heart?" He expressed last night that he wanted to ask Jesus into his heart. So, we prayed together and he continued praying thanking Jesus for dying for his sins. After I told him that he is not only my son, but God's son as well. He wanted me to know that he was Jesus' son too! He then yelled out "I am a Christian" from his loft bed so Jord, Bryn and Addi could hear what happened.


AW Tozer ‘the culture is putting out the light in men and women’s souls’


It is time to find the place where the wonder of faith can be experienced. Maybe it is a time to consider wild abandon, risky faith, quiet listening, happy terror! He came to rescue you from the flatness of your soul

It is that time of the year again where we are reminded of Mary, a young woman, a virgin betrothed to young guy in town by the name of Joseph. They had the respect of their community, I’m sure everybody thought ‘what a neat couple’ and plans were in the making for a great wedding…and then an angel shows up and turns a predictable engagement into a walking nightmare. Joseph has to embrace a pregnancy that is not his. As a couple they have to deal emotionally with the death of so many innocent babies because of their child. They have to flee the country, live in exile and such is the great adventure of faith!

Has God given you a crazy dream…pray for it to become a reality but prepared to commit to it as Lois so wonderfully put it to me last time, ‘stepping out in faith means you actually have to get out there and walk on a limb!

Maybe it is time to quit college or university and take a year off to go on the mission field. Maybe it is time to give up a secure job and go back to school. Maybe it is time to leave the corporation because the work is killing you!

Are your possessions possessing you?

What is the other option? The danger is that the voice will grow silent inside of you, the still small voice of God leading you, giving you dreams for His kingdom because the blaring noise crying out to you from work, from culture is so loud in your life telling you that the only thing that really matters is your work, how much you make and if you want fun, just wait for the weekend…


What about play?

Mike Yaconelli writes “play is an expression of God’s presence in the world; one clear sign of God’s absence in society in the absence of playfulness and laughter. Play is not an escape; it is the way to release the life-smothering grip of busyness, stress and anxiety.

What if we invited people over to our home and, instead of telling them about our joy, lived it by playing with them?

Come humble like a child v4


L’Arche community is where the majority of the members of the community are physically and mentally challenged.

The following is a blessing given to Henri Nouwen by his spiritual mentor. Henri served ten years at L’Arche in Toronto from ’86 –‘96 in seemingly oblivion. After all, prior to that he was a professor of theology at Harvard and Yale… However it was his writings on discovering God have captured many of us because of what he learned there at L’Arche. He wrote on solitude, community and ministry as the three avenues to create space for God to speak.


May all your expectations be frustrated, may all your plans be thwarted. May all of your desires be withered into nothingness, that you may experience the powerlessness and poverty of a child and sing and dance in the love of God the Father, the Son and the Spirit.”

Children accept the fact that they are not in control, there is someone bigger that is running the show. They ask a lot of questions and often they speak more to the relationship than to the answer. They know that they are secure because someone cares for them.

Well adjusted children know that they don’t always get what they want, but they can sure be persistent! They don’t give up easily!

Being humble doesn’t mean being passive. It is actively pursuing the will of God, having the heart of a servant and doing it with grace no matter what position you have.

In Luke 21 we discover a widow who came every day to the temple to give her small offering in the face of enormous ridicule, people would look down on her and demean the size of her gift, but she had that type of humility and abandonment to offer what little she had and Jesus recognized it for what it was.

God hides Himself in difficulty, in the challenges, in the shadows, in the failure and disappointment as well as the light and great surprises, but He is always there…

Deborah and the images of people standing at the foot of her bed…He is waiting for us to discover Him, waiting for us to learn.

Humility also means that we are not afraid to ask for help. We admit that we don’t have all the answers. We don’t know how everything will turn out. Our strength is found in admitting our weaknesses and realizing that good Christians are not always strong. As adults we just become more and more hesistant to admit we are in trouble

Put the welcome mat out!! v5

God forgive us for any type of ‘doorkeeper’ mentality that holds us back from embracing all people from every kind of background and experience.

It is the type of attitude that says that my way of worshipping God or my approach to God is superior to yours or this is the formula for prayer

We need to learn how to pray like children, no clichés, just being real with God and praying exactly what it on your mind. They are honest, simple and direct

It is worrying more about our appearances than who we really are. It is that thought process of wondering what will people think of me if I really run into Jesus’ lap and I embrace His presence. It may be the same mentality that comes into your mind if you thought about raising your hands in worship. I don’t want to appear too different from everyone else.

That is exactly what is going through the minds of those trying to keep the children from Jesus. We need to have decency and order.


The Takeaway

Rediscover your faith in Jesus through the eyes of a child, the wonder, the humility and abandonment.

Questions For Discussion and Small Groups


What’s the difference between being childlike and childish?
I long for a life that explodes with meaning and is filled with wonder, risk and danger. Do you think life should be lived dangerously? What would a dangerous life look like for you?
Can you name one prominent dream stealer in your life? Did you realize that dream or lose it?
Childlike faith is a faith that longs for God and seeks Him wherever He may be-even in the place of no answers. How do you think you can meet God in “the place of no answers?

Questions are provided from Dangerous Wonder (available in our library)

1 minute of fame in NYC!!

Well, Sharon and I decided to celebrate my 40th / our 18th anniversary in NYC and we had an unbelievable time from seeing the bright lights, big city at Times Square to the decorated and packed Macy's! We also strolled in Central Park, watched the production STOMP and celebrated our anniversary at a Thai restaurant, the Holy Basil. We ate at Tom's Restaurant, the one seen in Seinfield and navigated the metro subway. However, the highlight of our trip came on our last day, December 11th '07 as we woke up at 4:15am to catch the subway from Queens to go to Columbus Ave and 66th to see Regis and Kelly Live. We waited there in the stand by line from 5:50am to 7:40am, enjoyed free hot chocolate and we were 7th and 8th in line. We also hit it off right away with #6, Carin from DC who we discovered to be a Christian as well. Check out her blog at http://wanderer.oozy.ws/ She retells the story much better than me...So, at 7:40am, they gave us our numbers and we grabbed brkfst at Starbucks. We were back in line at 8:30am and then at 8:45am, they would eventually take in 12 of us and we got front row seats in the corner on the left side. I took my coat off, get settled and a producer came up to us and asked us if we wanted to dance and we said SURE!!! So, after 10 minutes of practice, we were on to do our thing... The icing on the cake was that this was their Christmas gift week so everyone in the studio audience received $500- gift cards...are you kidding me!!! What a blast, God is good, real good to this crazy pastor and his amazing wife who got another few, "you look like Cameron Diaz" in line to make her day! :) Here is the link to the video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arVbEaO4Rdk

Doing The Impossible...

I have been thinking a lot about that word this week. You put together a inter-faith symposium on religion and global peace that places a rabbi, a religious cleric from Islam and an ordained minister together to talk about what we share together and that would be impossible in many parts of the world. Well, I was there and it happened on Wednesday night at Milton Sports Center. I t was put on by a branch of Sunni Muslims, Ahmadiyya, who proclaim love for all and hatred for none quite different than Shite muslims who are very violent. We talked about understanding each other as well and visiting each other’s places of worship.

There has been a real concerted effort to bring Muslims and Christians together to dialogue about what we agree about. This movement now has a website where you can sign on http://www.acommonword.com/. It is an open letter to Christians signed by 138 Muslim leaders calling for peaceful coexistence and 300 leading Evangelicals leaders have responded with an affirmation towards this end with the acknowledgement of loving God and loving neighbour. I have to agree with Glenn Penner that there is something even more important than peace and that is truth and we need to realize that anything that does not proclaim Jesus as Lord is a counterfeit. We need to focus on opportunities just not just to keep the peace, but share about Jesus! Check out his writings at persecutedchurch.blogspot.com

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. Hebrews 11:6


The ability to please God without faith

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that He exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Hebrews 11:6

I love how the KJV captures the pursuit as it uses the word diligence. It is persistent application of doing things God’s way and He keeps asking me not to do what comes naturally, but supernaturally. You want to keep getting what you always got then do things the way you’ve always done them.

However, if you are ready to walk across the threshold to living your life by faith, be prepared to have your eyes opened wide.

Remember this that you won’t change until the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of changing. As Sharon shared last week about being stuck… are you there? Are you ready to move forward? God wants you to change, He wants you to please Him, but you can’t do it in your own strength. You need supernatural empowerment from on high. Pray that the HS would reignite your faith, recapture your heart.

How far are you willing to go to earnestly seek him. There was one such man who wanted God’s blessing on His life so desperately he stayed up all night and wrestled with the Lord until the Lord touched him in such a way that he became completely dependent on him for His every move. In Genesis 22, his name, Jacob was changed to Israel, from a deceiver to one who met God face to face, one who wrestled with God and experienced the fullness of His presence. Make no mistake about it that it came at a price.

In Genesis 32:25, the man that He wrestled with was no ordinary man, but a heavenly wrestler of God and He touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so what is the significance of that? No longer could Jacob wrestle, now He was forced to cling to God, to lean his entire weight on Him! Jacob was brought to the end of his own resources

He was physically left limping with the constant reminder to not do things in His own strength. How has God touched you to make you realize that you can’t do it, you can’t live the Christian life. It is only as we desperately come to God, cry out to Him and say walk me through this journey. I don’t have the strength, I don’t have the resilience. Walking in faith says God says I need you to live your life through me…that is faith, believing that in faith God is going to direct your steps, that He is going to reveal the answer as we pray, as we close ourselves into Him!

Without faith, without His blessing, you can’t please God, it is a futile attempt.


The Multiplication of God’s Kingdom Matthew 13:18,19

It cannot be tracked!

Then Jesus asked, "What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air perched in its branches."

Faith is something that grows, it does not remain stagnant. It starts as a mustard seed, but faith multiplied is like a mustard seed which grows into a tree. We are to be rooted in faith in such a way that others can rest on the faith, the evidence of and the strength that lies within its branches. It is a movement done in such a way that it grows beyond itself.

There has been a lot of caution out there going against a recent book being made into a movie called ‘The Golden Compass’ and rightly so, we need to be aware of this. Apparently the author aim is to destroy faith in our children being a self proclaimed atheist. It has certainly gotten a lot of airplay on talk radio and the warnings are out there. There are some catholic school boards that have removed the book from their school libraries. The Christian church is best when we are on the offence not the defence.

And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Matthew 16:18

Maybe its hard to get the image of a mustard tree in your head so I’ll give you one we can all relate to. Let’s talk about dandelions, now that is a movement. Do you have any idea how much money is spent on trying to eradicate them?? OK, I don’t know, but rest assured it’s a ton! They are a seed producing, manufacturing system. They are so committed to reproduction that they only stay beautiful for a couple of weeks. We need to be a dandelion church and give ourselves away. Church growth told us to look good and be good, but God wants us to give our faith away, start new small groups (house churches), give our stuff to others, share our faith stories, get the message out there. There is more to pursue in life that just not being disturbed by our neighbors!

We need to be a movement of faith and telling our own ‘golden stories of faith’ that point to the True North Star and when He shows up and does the impossible.

The things you do in faith. Matthew 17:20

He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." Matthew 17:20

One writer put it this way: “The prayer of faith is a definite request made in definite faith for a definite answer.” Faith is believing God will show up, God will make a way because you know you can’t!

Faith enables the believing soul to treat the future as present and the invisible as seen.
J Oswald Saunders

The Takeaway:

We serve the God of the impossible, but we can’t go there unless we step out in faith and believe.

Questions For Discussion and Small Groups:

1. How can your faith be increased to believe God for the impossible?

2. Glenn Penner from http://www.persecution.net/ shares, “the Quranic verse (Aal 'Imran 3:64) that served as the inspiration for the Muslim leaders in their open letter entitled "A Common Word Between Us and You" in http://www.acommonword.com/ is not a call to come together and live in peace despite our differences. The call of the passage in its context (Aal 'Imran 3:64-71) is a call for Christians and Jews to give up the lies of their faith and submit to Islam. It is not a call to find

common ground; it is a call to surrender!

Do we truly have common ground with Judaism and Islam? Should we be cautious of this movement? Why?

3. “The prayer of faith is a definite request made in definite faith for a definite answer. What definite prayer requests are you making to God?

By The Spirit!

KEEP ON KEEPING ON WITH FAITH IN GOD! Luke 11:9-13
When it comes to a prayer of faith, how desperate are we to see God act. Jesus keeps telling us to keep on asking, keep on looking, keep on knocking. The prayer of faith means we will not take no for an answer until God shows us otherwise! It is the confidence to believe.
Last week, I loved what one of you said to me following the service. This person came back to the table to grab more mustard seeds and the response was, “I am grabbing a whole bunch of these to stick all over my place!”
When God is at work and amazing things happen, those who are the instruments remain just that. They are humbled by the realization of what God has blessed them with. Usually the ones who have the gift are the most reluctant to accept what they have been given because they know the depth of where that might lead them and who that might lead them to. They don’t take credit for it, they recognize the hand of God give the glory to God. It’s that simple.

Every movement for the advancement of the gospel must be created and inspired by prayer EM Bounds

Jeremiah 33:3 Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.

His plan for people to come to know Him is by prayer
Isaiah 58:9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
Psalm 50:15 and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me."

It is that willingness to be silent, to remove the distractions, to just pause and to listen and wait for his promptings, his leading that is so powerful and transforming in our lives.

The flipside is also true…by not praying is a denial of the power of God, a denial of his nature and his desire for all people. Prayerlessness is a denial of God Himself.

The absence of prayer lessens all the life forces of the soul, cripples faith, sets aside holy living, shuts out heaven. EM Bounds
Intercession for others is the highest aspect of prayer because of its broad and unselfish application.

THE PRAYER OF FAITH IS BELIEVING THE HOLY SPIRIT WILL REVEAL THE ANSWER! John 16:5-16
It is the work of the Holy Spirit to convict the world of guilt
· In regard to sin – because men do not believe in me.
The main sin that the Holy Spirit convicts of is the sin of unbelief.
The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 2 Corinthians 4:4.
But when anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 2 Corinthians 3:16…back track a little more and this only happens through Christ v14

It is the sin of unbelief that condemns a person. There are a lot of good humans out there and they have cleaned up their act quite nicely I must admit. They are ‘good’ people, but without Jesus they are still lost and in need of a Saviour. You can quit all your bad habits, still be lost and headed for hell.


The Holy Spirit guides us into all truth. He will not lead you to do things that are contrary to the example of Christ or the teaching of the Word.
He will tell you about the future... This is the ministry of the prophetic. You cannot pin down or tell me how the Spirit works. John 3 Like the wind, the Spirit is invisible, but very powerful. You cannot explain or predict the movements of the wind and it is the same with the Spirit of God. He is the one who will show you the how, give you the when and tell you the way!
He will bring Christ glory The key to recognizing a counterfeit is studying the real thing and with money, it is discovered in the unique markings. When trying to discern when someone is speaking prophetically or sharing about the work and movement of God, get a sense of who is getting the glory here. Where are the accolades going, where are people running? Are they running towards God, is Christ receiving the glory or is it self and the pursuit of personal gain?

Prayer is not ME theology…we pick up on Simon the sorcerer in Acts 8:9 where it states he was, ‘claiming to be someone great’ He was very influential, they called him the great one! He became a believer and thought that He could ‘buy in’ to the power of the Holy Spirit. Peter and John could see right through him.


He will reveal to you what He receives from Jesus...
I can’t figure out why God heals and answers prayers for some people and not for others. I do know this, prayer changes me, it changes my attitude and enables us to build a strong foundation for when the storms really hit. It gives us strength to endure and at times to accept the pain and we must endure. You may get to the place where you say God, “I give up” and it is there that He can also bring assurance and the groanings of the Spirit which cannot be understood, but God knows and He cares very deeply for His children Romans 8:28,29. The Holy Spirit is your ultimate intercessor before God.
Isaiah 64:6 For since the world began, no ear has heard, and no eye has seen a God like you, who works for those who wait for him!
We are being called to put God to work! Prayer moves the hand of God

Christ could do nothing without prayer. The apostles were helpless without prayer – and were absolutely dependent upon it for success in defeating their spiritual foes. The could do all things by prayer.
EM Bounds

The Takeaway
The God of the OT and NT is the same God today and as we pray we will see how He continues to break into history supernaturally.
Here’s my challenge, the wake up BELL for every week -

B – bless 3 people/week –share, give, encourage
E – eat with 3 people/week - Jesus ate good food with bad people…that was his life. get good at hospitality. If you can’t make it, then ‘treat’ it!
L – listening prayer – practice it for an hour/week
L- learn together
S – share together, journal how God is giving you divine appointments and interrupting your life, your workplace during the week and tell those stories to each other in your house churches…be energized by it.

The Prayer of Faith

The prayer of faith goes beyond simple prayer to the place where the desire is awakened in us to the confidence and expectation that God will answer, He will lead and make our paths straight. It is that which we need to be driven towards because prayer stabilizes me and keeps faith alive! The question we need to answer is this; how do we pray in such a way that it does not become routine, ritualistic or some kind of formula? We will discover the fullness of prayer experienced in faith.

YOU WILL SEE SUPERNATURAL ACCORDING TO YOUR FAITH

Mark 6:5 states ‘He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them.’
I went to a Baptist seminary for my training and Baptists are known to be people of the Word. While there I learned about dispensationalism and the study of the different ages of the church basically being categorized in different eras, the age of the law, the age of the apostolic ministry and now the age of grace. It all fit together well sort of. When it came to gifts, it was said that the were foundational gifts that the church was built on but those gifts aren’t active today. So, there was this acceptance that God doesn’t work like that anymore…why, because we have the completed Word and those signs were used as a validation for the Word until it was complete. It sounded good, but it wasn’t biblical. It was a safe idea to not expect anything too crazy, too supernatural to happen. It is the attitude that suggests we don’t want to get our hopes up too high. I believe that today dispensationalism is a self-fulfilling prophecy. I like to call it the Nazareth prophecy….
Now the Pentecostal are known for the power, they are all about manifesting the Holy Spirit…go with the flow of the Spirit, as the Spirit leads and that can be dangerous too because sometimes God puts stuff right in front of you and He calls you to act. He already tells us to do some stuff and we don’t need to feel it all the time when we are called to obey. So, if you go with all Spirit, no Word, that can be dangerous too…
But when I came to the Alliance, I was told we walk in the middle, always keeping the tension strong being led by the Spirit and the Word
But everywhere I see God wants to break into history supernaturally. Yes, there was the age of the law but in the OT there was a ton of miracles going on from the Red Sea, to incredible victories over cities by Joshua and Gideon, to the closing of the lion’s mouth for Daniel, 3 guys safe in a blazing furnace, 1 guy hanging out in a fish for three days…God is all over the course of history.
Matthew 17:19,20
Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, "Why couldn't we drive it out?"
He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."
God is not asking you for much…look at the mustard seed, can you pray for that kind of faith this week.
The world is catching on to this idea. Its called ‘the secret’ The idea is that if you visualize on something long enough and believe that it is yours, it will be yours. It’s the law of attraction and Rhonda Byrne is getting rich. There are 5.3 million copies already sold in the States since it came out last year and the secret is that you are the center of the universe.
One article writes:
See yourself living in abundance and you will attract it. It works every time, with every person." The appeal is obvious. Forget education, effort, performance. Everything you want—money, power, comfortable shoes—is yours simply by wanting it enough.
As self-absorbed as I already am, I loved the permission the book gave to sink deeper into a Jacuzzi of megalomania. As The Secret points out: "You are the master of the Universe. You are the heir to the kingdom. You are the perfection of Life." So, I vowed to follow Byrne's simple rules for abundance and see what happened. The book encourages one to start big: "It is as easy to manifest one dollar as it is to manifest one million dollars."
Why do so many people get what they don't want? As Byrne writes, "Imperfect thoughts are the cause of all humanity's ills, including disease, poverty, and unhappiness." Yes, according to The Secret, people don't just randomly end up being massacred, for example. They are in the wrong place because of their own lousy thinking. Cancer patients have long been victims of this school of belief. But The Secret takes it to a new and more repulsive level with its advice not just to blame people for their illness, but to shun them, lest you start being infected by their bummer thoughts, too.
The difference for Jesus followers is that God told us to welcome the sick, to pray for the sick, to believe enough that God can do miracles and that He is the one who wants us to get down and dirty into the mess of people’s lives. You know what we have discovered about Jesus and what He has come to do? Luke 4:18,19 We are to be so counter cultural, don’t get wrapped up in yourself, don’t buy these lies.
http://www.slate.com/id/2165746/

James 5:13-16

Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
Let me make it very clear that prayer is not magic.
Prayer is a process where we spiritually surrender so that we might become instruments through which God can work supernaturally. It is not about us, it is not about praying the right words. When we do that, we trivialize God.
We don’t go running around either telling people they weren’t healed because they don’t have enough faith. That is the kind of stuff that gives God a bad name. When we pray in Jesus’ name, it is saying that we embody everything that His name is about.

Questions For Discussion and Small Groups

1. What does faith ‘as small as a mustard seed’ look like for you?

2. What have you learned about prayer that has given you more confidence to enter the throne room with God?

Ancient Faith In A Postmodern World...

How can we practice an ancient faith in a postmodern world? In John 21, I see how Jesus is bridging this gap between what we say and how we feel. The more pastoral side of Jesus is coming through here in the commissioning that He gives His disciples and in particular, Peter. Jesus appeals to the emotions of Peter as He gives him his calling. It wasn’t a calling that he was supposed to think about, it was something Jesus wanted him to feel.
The beginning of the modern era began with Rene Decartes’ famous saying, “I think, therefore I am”. However, it is not so for many of us today. Now, more than ever, people are saying, “I feel, therefore I am.” So, can we feel our way to God? The answer I believe is yes because His Word tells us to seek Him with all of our heart and when we do that we will find Him! Jeremiah 29:13 The more important question we need to answer is this, “How can we feel our way to God and what does that look like?”

Doing What We Know Best…v1-5

I think it is interesting to note that 7 of the 12 disciples were fisherman by trade. They were professionals and yet there is something that speaks to their vocation because it required diligence, courage and dedication which are all qualities that Jesus was looking for. Fisherman are also known to stick with it and not quit easily, but it looks pretty obvious here that they were quitting on Jesus.

Following Jesus’ death, the disciples were left floundering and went back to what they knew best – they went fishing. When we doubt, when we fear, when we lose our way, what do we do? We go back to the familiar, we go back to what we know, we go back to our natural learned tendencies. The disciples were fishing all night and had not caught one ‘stinkin’ fish! Now to add insult to injury, someone that they didn’t recognize right away told them to throw their net on the other side of the boat.

Now what is the difference between the left side of the boat and the right side? Is there is any real difference in the water?

No difference right? You better repent! If Jesus tells you there is a difference, there is a difference, no matter how crazy it seems! And then maybe we question, who is telling us to do this? Is this God? The disciples didn’t recognize Jesus at this point, but they listened.

How often do we live by calculation or by faith? Too often we get our spreadsheets out, we listen to the voice of reason as I shared last week. It is hard to listen, it is hard to follow through especially when we think “this is ridiculous, this makes no sense”. You see we are more comfortable talking about what God did then, that is a safe place, we can exegete that very well. But what about today, what is God doing in our midst, that takes courage, that takes faith.

We need to get to the place where we acknowledge the emptiness of our own nets.

Doing What You Are Told! v6-14




How many fish did they catch?

153 fish…anything significant about that – you bet. The known nations at that time in history was…you guessed it – 153!! (Wolfgang Simson shared this in his message on house churches)
Where is the right side of the boat today?

We need to listen more and more to the voice of the Lord. You know how you go into a new mall and you can’t find what you are looking for? So, you go to the information map and it shows you all the locations, but before you can really be on your way, you have to find the ‘blessed ‘you are here’ red dot. God knows where the red dot is and He will lead us to it by revelation.

Over the course of recent history, we have had some major revolutions:

First, it was the industrial rev. with the invention of the steam engine. Then, it was the breakthrough of electricity with Thomas Edison and the light bulb. In 1941, the computer was invented, in ’71, the 1st microchip was created. Now, with the internet which came in the information revolution and we are drowning in it.

Today we are living in the inspiration revolution. People are seeking guidance and they are either being inspired from above or below. World leaders are now listening to their “spiritual advisors’. The Iranian president believes Allah is speaking to him through a prophecy from ‘Humani’ who said Israel will be wiped out.

Come and Have Breakfast! v12

I love this picture of Jesus who calls out to His disciples to have breakfast with Him. We are called to connect not subscribe. Jesus wants to do life with us and in the context of that encounter we hear what we He wants to say. It is always in the context of relationship.

Maybe there’s a reason why the question, “Can you hear me now?” resonates loud and clear with us. We live in a place where relationships have been traded for inanimate objects and where technology isolates us at the same time that it promises to connect us.



Look Me In The Eyes! v15-19

Some of the deepest expressions of love between people are made with the eyes. We can say so much just by the way we look eye to eye. Jesus said that the eye is the lamp of the body or the window to the soul as the Message paraphrases it in Matthew 6:22,23

Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have!

Jesus is restoring Peter in this passage

In this conversation, Jesus challenges Peter to the level of the love he spoke of, a boastful love, a proud love, a love greater than the other disciples, agape love and in Peter’s response he holds back from speaking about a sacrificial love here. In fact, he responds with the love of a friend, phileo. He is not quick to jump to the estimation of his love anymore because he was completely humbled. Jesus in his third challenge even questions his ‘phileo’ love. The fact is that we love Him because He first loved us. If there is any love to be received and given, it is the love that He can place in our heart as we come to Him with our empty nets.

The most important thing that Peter can do for his lambs and his sheep is to love and feed on Jesus Himself. For those of you in leadership positions, the best thing you can offer those you lead is not your knowledge, but your heart. We can only feed what we’ve been fed.

There is also a distinction between lambs and sheep.

The eyes are the light into our soul and we often can see right into a person’s inner sanctum through their eyes if we take long enough time to look. Close your eyes and consider that Jesus is fixing his eyes on you. What message do you sense He would be communicating with you. What would flow out of you if you let Him connect with you in the innermost recesses of your being. Then, reflect on what you could pour into another person and what essence of God could come through you.

In Peter’s ‘look me in the eyes’ encounter with Jesus, he was challenged 3 times about His love and devotion for His Lord. Why does Jesus press the issue? The obvious answer is that he denied have anything to do with him in his three denials.

There are times when God communicates His love for us that are “transrational”. It is those times when encounter the love of God that goes beyond explanation. As Paul shared that encounter will fully be experienced in heaven, but still can know it in part now. We shouldn’t miss that. For many of us who grew up in the church, it was faith, fact, feelings…feelings were the caboose of the train, not to be trusted, put in the back seat, but more and more today, people long to feel their way to God and God is fully capable of being felt.

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. (1 Corinthians 13:12)

John 3:8 speaks of the wind of the Spirit. It is not something that you can place your finger on. It happens unexpectedly and it can happen with strangers about whom you know practically nothing, objectively speaking. It is that subjected experience that we are all too often afraid to go to, but when it happens, it is so powerful.

Luke 24: 32They asked each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?"

What About Him or Her? V20-22

When you have an encounter with the resurrected Jesus, revel in it, be in awe of it, don’t stuff it and at the same time realize that it is special, it is unique. We don’t try to explain it away, trivialize it and at the same time do we try to normalize what we experience for everybody.

We can spend so much time trying to ‘fish’ for people using our own methods, but when Jesus is leading, there is power. I continue to learn and relearn the truth that Romans 8:14 shares that those who are lead by the Spirit are the sons of God


The Takeaway

We feel our way to God as He seeks us and we seek Him in love and listen to His voice,

The promptings of the Holy Spirit often are right in front of us. He will show you the verses, He will show you the people, He will show you the way. Jesus is still speaking today.

And this goes a whole lot better when we just get quiet.


Technology reduces everything to binary codes
Religion reduces everything to moral codes
Jesus reduced everything to a one word relational code: love

It is a grande passion, not lukewarm. Jesus is calling us into all consuming experiences of life. We are not here just for faith, but a passionate faith.

Questions For Discussion and Small Groups

1. Alright, who purposed listened for God’s voice this past week? Where did you go??

What does the left side of the boat look like for you?
How can you get to the place where you throw your net on the right side of the boat?
What could breakfast with Jesus look like in your home?
Jesus tells Peter to feed his lambs and then his sheep. What is the significance of that?