My dream last night

I had an extremely passionate dream last night. It also seemed to last for much of the morning time of my rest. As i begin to remember and write it, I pray the Lord will guide my heart and my mind, so that i can remember what i experienced last night.

Interesting enough, as i began to tell my wife about the dream on the way to work, she explained to me that she woke up last night at 4:30am, wide awake, and did not go back to sleep til sunrise. So she prayed intensely for our family and others, which was most certainly around the time i was in the mist of my dreaming. Glory to God for a praying wife.

What i believe was a prophetic dream...

I was traveling in a city. I cannot say that it is a place that i have been before, however it was familiar. As i walked through the crowd, i was suddenly moved into years later in that same spot. The brick buildings that were so prominent in my first reality were broken, decayed, obviously something drastic had happened during these 2 time periods.

The other new reality was that i was not alone, i had someone with me. Better stated, though i walked beside him, it was him leading our team.

As we entered one of these buildings, i felt very sure i had been her before. The building was much like a large warehouse, with all sorts of closets, offices, and rooms off of it. All of it very dirty, very worn and broken.

Initially i remember a great empty room, as we moved through it around a brick wall, we met the first few people. They were definitely human beings, however there was a "zombie" like presence about them. I drew my sword of light quickly (not light saberish, more like a rod of pure light). It was almost instantaneous as we would be approached by these beings, our heart would break for them, some would seem to come alive and recognize us. If they did, then it was like family had come alive again, and there was much peace, and they joined us as we moved forward. On the other hand, others seemed aggravated to our presence and stayed in their zombie like trance. A few times as i would prepare to attack these aggravated beings and my travel partner would stay my hand, and his eyes would meet theirs and they would come out of the trance. It was a beauty and grace i cannot describe well, even now.

The ones that did not come out of the trance, I attacked with the sword of light, and defeated. I cannot say where they went when i defeated them, but they dissipated completely. What i can say is that each time they did not come back to human form, and i was forced to defeat them, i was hurting both during and after the fighting. Although i felt deeply for the loss i was experiencing, my counterpart was more broken than i for each one. And yet each time, we moved forward to the next crowd of people.

This process of moving through the building meeting crowds of beings, and using the sword of light, lasted for a long time. Eventually, we entered into one of the rooms off of the second main room. At which point we met what i knew to be the enemy. I neither feared him, nor was scared to speak to him. As we prepared to enter into what i assumed was his office, he made me take a pair of silver crosses attached to the top of my shoes off. At my travel partners approval I did so, and we moved into the room with him. As we entered, i noted what seemed to be a very long dark hallway with hundreds of doors behind him.

As we sat down facing the enemy, i realized that my travel partner was the Christ. The enemy was slick. He was dressed well, and spoke well. At moments his speech was tempting. He spoke to both the Christ and myself. He was telling us how late we were in this, and that our losses on the way to him were great. It felt as if he was trying to convince himself and us that he was winning this particular battle.

More than once in this discussion as the enemy would speak directly to me, i would hear the Christ speak to me as well, with the words to answer him. The enemy had no idea that the Christ was doing this, and became more and more aggravated at my strong responses to him. Also more than once i watched the Christ correct or remind the enemy of something. His words were strong as a bullhorn, and yet soft as a whisper.

At some point the conversation began to wind down, and the enemy in one last ditch effort looked right at me and said, "i see that he does not fear me, but you, i believe you fear me" at which point i stated to him "I fear the Lord and the Lord alone." It was one of those moments where truly i was scared, and yet in boldness i moved forward. At that the enemy was gone, and we were left standing side by side once again headed down the hallway.

This is how i remember the dream ending, and i woke up very rested and full of peace.

As Jess and I spoke this morning about it, the one reality that come to mind immediately was that the enemy wanted us to believe that this city was already defeated. Yet in a very short time we had seen many that had been deceived by the enemy, and the world's trance had come out of it, and there was much joy. And that there were still hundreds of rooms filled with hundreds more beings that needed to experience the presence of the Christ.

A way to live, thoughts from a conversation this week...

I have been marinating in a thought this week after a conversation i had with a brother in Christ. While in PA i took the opportunity to sneak over and see my friend in Lancaster, Geoff.

As Geoff and i began to catch up discussing God, family, and life. We were both awestruck on all that God was doing in our individual lives, and the lives around us. It seems obvious to say that God is up to a bunch of things, but maybe our awestruck emotions came more from our recognition of how the simple things are for His glory as well, not just the big moments.

As our discussion hit its mid way point, Geoff asked me a question. "Man how do you do it, how do you keep God first, your family second, and ministry/other third?" He wasn't asking because he did not know how, he was asking because Geoff wants to grow. So I pondered for a moment, and then said "I do my best to make small adjustments to my life everyday. Some people fear looking in the mirror and asking what else? I find great benefit in surrendering my life to God, and asking Him what is next? I don't spend much time in regret, rather repent."

Admittedly, i have tried to live this way for a while. You might say it is my form of living out Romans 12:1+2, paraphrased "that my life might be a living sacrifice holy and pleasing to God. And that by analyzing what part of my life is in the world, i might make small transformations so that i might live in His will".

The world we live in today, spends billions of dollars, hours of life, and every trick in the trade to tell us that the BIG moments in our life transform. And though i am for BIG moments, i do not find them transforming daily. Instead in my life i have found that the smallest decision towards my righteousness, builds on a daily basis, a foundation that is not sinking sand.

This was a beautiful moment for me during our conversation because i am not sure i had verbalized what i was trying to do by living this way each day. I just was, daily, in His Grace.

It reminded me of men and women all over the world that do BIG things; farmers, astronauts, fire fighters. Needless to say they face BIG moments in their lives. The planting and the harvest, the blast off and returning into the atmosphere, the 3 alarm fire in the middle of the night. But i would guess the majority of it is filled with small changes in their lives daily, so they can be ready for whatever comes their way.

I decided to share today, hoping that it would catch someone who is waiting for a BIG moment to change their lives. Maybe that is not what God is up to. Maybe today is about being honest looking in the mirror and making some small adjustments. So that as He transforms us, we will be ready to live. Then tomorrow and the next day we can do it all over again.

ROMANS 12: 1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual[a] act of worship. 2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. NIV

Selah - Pause and reflect - His Grace, His Peace, and His Power in you today -

6 Months...

Many of you are well aware of the story of our Niece Katy. Katy is the 14 yr old daughter of some very good friends of ours. This past Sept 30th, she was admitted to Vanderbilt Hospital with stomach pains, and then diagnosed with salmonella, which almost took her life more than once, while destroying a good part of her colon. Over the next 8 weeks we watched Katy fight for her life, and in the Lord's graciousness he restored her.

Well after 4 months of recovery, Katy returned for surgery this past tuesday to see if the doctors could repair what was damaged in her colon. I am happy to say that not only was it repairable but Ms. Katy is healing incredibly quickly.

My beautiful wife Jessi got to spend a moment with Katy last night at the hospital, and as i waited for her, i was struck by the resounding beauty of the celebration of the resurrection of our savior. While the world pauses for 3 days, or even 40 if we are gracious, to remember what Jesus has done through the cross.

As a follower of Christ, and a lover of Him, it is our great joy to live a life knowing that He is alive and still up to raising the dead, healing the sick, standing up for the poor, and holding little children. I am truly astounded by the number of ways that he shows His love for us. And that He has left us to also show His love to the world.

All of us know someone who has faced a illness or accident, and has not made it. We live in a broken world. However, without minimizing that pain, i do want to encourage Christians, aka people who live life as if Christ is still alive and busy loving the world. That we must be a voice of hope, and not of brokeness. It seems far too often we accept that brokeness, pain, illness, and such is "just part of it." And again in this world it is, but it was never His plan and still is not.

Today and tomorrow it is my hope that you (like our family) will celebrate the resurrection with a community of believers some where. As we do, let me encourage all of us to take a moment, recognize the awe of having a living active Christ in our world now, and decide that His life, not the worlds death is what deserves our time, talent, and calendar. For when the world stops their celebration, let us resound with ours, and as John 14 says, lets live that way til He returns or we go home to be with Him.

Customer Service is not dead...give credit where it is due...

Wanted to pass on some quick "UP's" where they are due. A week ago this morning, i arrived at the airport at 5am to fly out of town. As i arrived, i took one last look at my e-ticket, and to my misfortune, it seems that i had been Pricelined... Yes, i used this service to book my ticket, put that i was flexible on my travel times, but not on my dates of travel. And to my dismay, it booked my ticket exactly a week later than it showed me on the screen. (Now let me pause and say, there is a chance this is my fault, and i will accept that, however in this case, i am pretty sure, i saw the dates i was trying to book online as correct).

The lady at Continental could see the worry on my face. And smiled kindly as she heard my plea for help. Mind you at this point, i had my credit card out, and knew a fee of great proportion was coming. Never the less i had to get out of town today. After a few minutes of tapping and working, she had me on a flight a few hours later, and no upgrade fee. She even prepped me to fly standby on my connecting flight. She then directed me to another carrier to fix my return flight. I was stunned, and thankful.

As i headed over to the Delta counter, i saw a gentlemen, who just as kindly heard my plea for help. He tapped away, and i thought againn, better get my $ out. This time however, he explained that he could not help me. And if Continental was willing to help i should go see them about this flight as well. I asked one last time, "Even though this is a Delta flight, i should go back over there?" He said yes, and warned me of a $200 fee coming my way.

So i head back to Continental, where she asks me what else she can do for me. I explain what Delta said, and she began tapping again. Within 5 minutes, she had fixed my ticket completely, again, ready at NO COST. During our small talk while she was tapping, she told me she was still trying to wake up. So as she finished, i headed towards Sbux, and picked her up a Grande with half/half. The bible is clear, that we are to honor those, who deserve so. Priceline and / or my negligence could have started this day with much worry and unforeseen cost. But instead someone cared enough to spend 5 minutes and fix my day.

Admittedly more often than not, my expectations are greater than the customer service i receive. However, today, my expectations were blown away, and when this deal is over, i plan to make sure that Continental knows how good they have it with this Lady at the counter. And recommend her to moved to a CS trainer and overseer. To all of you who serve in the world of C.S., thanks today was a great reminder it is not dead!

A dream i had a few weeks ago...

Like everyone, i get busy now and again. This is a gift the Lord gave me in the form of a dream a few weeks ago, and i have just recently found time to post it. To Jesus be the glory.

Had an interesting dream the other night. I was in a large condo somewhere on a retreat. Jess and the boys were with me, as were other youth leaders and family.

It was obvious that I was leading the retreat, and that we were winding down from the days events. As I began to navigate my way through the house we were all in. I headed down stairs to find 2 large rooms, one with guys in bunks, hanging out, getting cleaned up, the other with girls doing the same.

The students were all busy doing their thing, and all seemed to fall in the Sr and Jr high range. As I made my way back upstairs to the main level. I walked over towards the picture windows facing outside to take a look, and behind me sat a typewriter on a flat table. Out of no-where the type writer threw itself on the floor and basically exploded. I ran over, took a look and immediately decided this was warfare.

I communicated this to my wife and the other leaders around me, they agreed and immediately we began to pray fervently, for our students, for our team. As I took perspective on our time of prayer, it hit me this was as aggressive as I can remember myself ever leading such a time of prayer, it was intense. We were coming against principalities, we were calling on the angels of heaven to come and fight. It was a pretty serious and victorious ordeal.

At some point I recognized that I had yet to check upstairs on my boys who were already asleep. As I made my way towards the stair case, the hall was very dark. And then I began to see flashes of light. Flickers, might even be a better explanation. At first I thought it was another round of attacks. And then I had this sudden peace about me, that this was not attack, but angelic. The Lord had heard our cries (obviously) and had responded (again obviously), and some sort of logic reminded me of a book I read by CS Lewis, and a quote that he had experienced the same sort of wonder. So I worshiped the Lord, thanked him for the spiritual forces, and headed upstairs to check on the boys. All was well with them, so made my way back downstairs.

It is at this point that I woke up from my dreaming. I checked the clock, it was 4am, on the nose. I remembered all I had just been dreaming about, and immediately went into prayer mode again. Very victorious, and very aggressive. Praying for our home, our family, Katy Hollis, the kids that were in the rooms hanging out at the retreat. It was a wild time of prayer. Somewhere about ½ hour into it, I found the peace again to rest. So I went back to sleep. I have shared this time with Jess and the only aspect that seems out of place, is me referencing CS Lewis concerning the flickering of lights that were around me. I cannot remember any quote by him about such a wonder, it reminds me more of Peretti to be honest.

I thank the Lord that he is always at work, restoring his kingdom, and that he allows me glimpses of wonders in my life to see what he is up to and to be a part on this side of Heaven.

Tribes

Just finished the book Tribes by Seth Godin. What a great description of leadership and ability to tell it's story.

For many this book will frustrate you. In a world full of formulas and 5 steps to huge success (I jest of course) this is a book of identity an encouragement.

Seems that Seth is able to put his finger on the reality that God has a purpose for each of us. For him this is best described as leadership, and the innate need in each of us to lead in some way.

Majority of the book helps each of us identify with leaders and their choice to lead. Long before resources, a following, or a killer product there is that choice we must make to lead.

In fact it is the simple humaness of choice that leads us to lead. Reality is I will never have enough money to raise my children, enough time to write effectively enough, or enough spirituality to pray for everything that matters to me or my Lord. Instead I make a choice daily to move towards what i see in my minds eye as my future and not be inactive due to what I do not yet have or fear I never will.

As the book ends a few quotes moved me that I decided I would share, and the sure enough Seth asks that anyone who finishes the book will do him a favor and pass it on, so here goes;

I think most people have it upside down. Being charismatic doesn't make u a leader. Being a leader makes you charismatic. It's a choice not a gift.

The secret, Reagan's secret, is to listen, to value what you hear, and then make a decision even if it contradicts the very people you are listening to. Listen, really listen. Then decide and move on.

Without people pushing against your quest to do something worth talking about, it's unlikely to be worth the journey. Persist.

Real leaders don't care about credit, they do all they can to give it away. Credit isn't the point change is!

I can tell you this; leaders have nothing in common. Except this they make a choice to lead.

Hope you enjoy the book, I look forward to your thoughts. And if you enjoy Seth and his ability to tell the story you should check out Tim Sanders too.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

How could America change the world?

How could America change the world?

Let me start by being clear about my love for all the amazing testimonies of grace that flow out of the western world and especially out of the US. From feeding the poor, to serving orphans, to protecting the widow, I am amazed at all we are up to in the name of Jesus. So this note is not about what is not being done, but instead what IS/CAN be done.

This week my brother in-law shared with me part of his story on how his family is affecting the lives of 4 adults And 3 kids on the other side of the globe. His story is so profound and so life shifting, that it has messed up my perspective and must be told to any and all that will listen.

Last year through a series of very random events online, my brother in law met a family from the Philippines. At first like anyone should be with online these days, he was skeptical at best to their need and their real reason for reaching out to him. However, something kept drawing him to reach out to them in very small ways. So eventually he began to ask the Lord, is this something He is up to?

This family lives in a cinderblock shack near Manila so their needs are fairly endless. In this need they have a real hunger for the gospel, so my brother and his family have been sharing the gospel and dealing with the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual needs they have, little by little.

From bibles, to a fridge, to college transportation, over time my brother in-laws family has found that a very insignificant amount of American $ can go a long way in the Philippines. In fact he has figured out that $100 a month wired to this family guarantees they all get meals for that month. By providing for food the family, they can use their income to upgrade their home and their lives, little by little.

The oldest daughter is fighting her way through college, so my brother in-law raises $ to make sure that she has the supplies, food, and transportation she needs each month, by the way this totals $150 a month. Literally in one generation this family’s life style will change by simply having a college graduate in their home.

Every once in a while a big need will come up, like surgery or a hospital visit, which must be prepaid. So my brother in law tells the story and his work buddies jump in to help. Just recently this team at his job raised just over $400 to pay for this surgery, that’s right $400 American for surgery and recovery in the hospital in the Philippines.

What both impresses and amazes me about this influence on this family is that my brother in-law is not rich by American standards. He is a hard working, very ok with being regular, blue collar worker that works with specialty woods shop all day long. He has a home, a family, and a church family he cares for, and does so quite well.

Yet he gets it. Americans are so blessed no matter their financial status, we live in abundance. So what if 1% of the American families adopted a family in another part of the world? Approximately 1 million families globally would be moving towards a change. The natural turn would be the gospel exploding in greater ways all over the world?

How can America change the world? 1 family at a time, 1 need at a time, 1 gospel story at a time.