Stand

That's the way we get the victory, standing. Read this command the Lord gave Moses when it was his time to stand. Exodus 8:20 "Then the Lord told Moses, Get up early in the morning and STAND IN PHARAOH'S WAY as he goes down to the river [one of the worship objects of all Egyptians, the Nile River]. Say to him, This is what the Lord says: Let my people go, so they can worship me."

It probably was the last thing Moses wanted to do. He stuttered, had no confidence in his abilities given him by God. Couldn't quite trust God all the way, in spite of numerous assurances. Moses obeyed, maybe his knees were shaking, but he was standing. God was faithful to all he promised Moses and because of God's faithfulness, Moses was the great leader of his people out of slavery.

All of us have been where Moses was, scared. Moses had good reason, Israel had been slaves to Egypt over 400 years and he was told by God to stand in the way of the slave master. But, the more he trusted the Lord, the stronger Moses was.

It's time to stand. Right in front of Pharaoh. The Pharaoh for us today is anything and everything that holds us prisoner and keeps us from worshiping God with all that we are. We've been fasting for liberty, freedom, breakthrough and that's exactly what the Lord wants to give us. Time to rise early and stand.

The Debt

Pastors Jeff and Melinda have led us well in the Awakening21 fast these last weeks. Jim and I have been reading Isaiah 58 every day and one phrase keeps sticking out in my heart; "...cancel debts." Isa. 58:8 MSG. Talk about flying in the face of American culture! If I can use an analogy, our cultural 'scripture' would say: "Show me the money," or, "You owe me." This is not a call to abandon our contract debts, this has more to do with forgiving personal offense. However, God is blessed when we forgive money debt too.

Matt. 18:21-35 is the parable Jesus told about the unmerciful servant who refused to forgive the debt of a fellow servant. They were ALL servants of the king, ALL in the same boat, but one chose to hold on to the debt and threw his fellow servant into prison for non-payment of the debt. Of course, in prison there is no way the servant will ever be able to repay the debt. Forever in debt. That's the way unforgiven offenses are, holding the person in the prison of our making, except we are the ones that end up in prison too. At some point we will come face to face with the king.

I see Isaiah 58 as a call to spiritual maturity in the body of Christ. This is the meat of the word. This is a scripture that if we take it to heart will eternally change us. Another step in faith to faith, glory to glory. This is the denying of self just to please Christ who has given all for us. This is one of the greatest breakthrough scriptures in the Bible. This is the rhema that sets us free from the degradation of offense when it lingers. This is the scripture that will lead us out of offense or help us forgive the offense before it gets deeply into our hearts. This is what we are fasting and praying for. God does what He says He will do, this is His covenant with us who will follow His word. God says "if" and "then." The 'if' part is ours to do, the 'then' part is what God will do when we first do the 'if.' No mistaking anything in this scripture, God is ready to do exactly what He says He will do.

Why are we fasting and praying? Is it not... Fill in the blank space. When God does a work, it is mighty. Expect to see Him do just what He promised.

God bless you in this great step of faith.

Days

No, I do not have the ability to see Jim's blue eyes on twitter. That's what happens when you blog early in the morning. But I can text him and say, come home so I can see your blue eyes and ask how your day was! This blog idea began with the twitter from Down Under, Pastor Brian Houston; "Gidday." Wonder what we tweets made of that day the 20th? All our days and nights are from the God who created them and all things.

"Then God said, 'Let there be light.' And God saw that the light was good. Then he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light 'day' and the darkness 'night.' And evening passed and morning came, marking the first day." Genesis 1:3-5.

As I wrote the blog titled "Twitter," there was a new blog moving around in my brain about days. YesterDAYS, toDAYS, future Days, and the decisions we make in this gift of days we are given by God. Making it count every day, or just floating by in this life. Putting decisions on the shelf somewhere or taking steps in faith when we don't know what the outcome will be. (Marriage is like that, a step of faith whether we know it or not.) No one can know what the future holds for us, but our days are made up of many decisions. Some small, some very big, some excruciating.

One DAY Abram (Abraham) heard God tell him to leave his country and family for a place he knew nothing about. It must have been like taking the last known stairstep into darkness. But he followed God's will and it has changed and influenced the entire Church. One day, one obedient man.

Days pass and before we know it, we are moving into the seventh decade, at least I am! There is nothing we can do to change any day we have lived, just thank the Lord we had every day, because our times are in His hands. He is the one who uses each day for His glory no matter what happened or didn't happen. God said the light of day was good, I'm thanking God for the light of every one of my days.

Today is a new day, a gift. Tell someone you love them. The new day is opportunity. Surprise. Open doors, closed doors. Laughter, lots of that. (One twitter friend said she had a goal of 25 laughs for the day, excellent!) Encouragement. New steps of faith. How about this one? Sunday is another opportunity to worship with family and friends. Jesus is worthy of all praise! God wants us to have breakthrough, so come ready to praise.

I can't imagine a more exciting day to be living in than the 21st century. Whatever the day holds, give it everything you've got!

Twitter

Is it the sound birds make at 4AM out of your open window in the summer? Or is it the descriptive word of a bride coming down the aisle as she watches her husband-to-be? All a-twitter. If you were born after 1950, you've probably never heard that expresion before, all a-twitter.

Twitter is a form of communication thousands (maybe millions) of people are doing on line or over their cell phones. Does anyone own a landline any more? Twitter is a community in itself. Twitter is a form of connecting people to life in Jesus. Twitter is used as a cry out to the twitter world for prayer. Twitter may be an easier way for a guy to ask a girl out on a date?? Twitter is a great reminder of events coming up. You know, for those of us that need the reminder. If only we could remember to look at our date book. C'mon, you really don't think we're that old do you? After reading twitters from friends for several months, it's easy to see when something isn't going quite right, so God uses this form of communication to care for each other. Twitter is an open door for 21st century busy people to stay in touch. We need each other. We really do. (Guy named Reuben Welch wrote a book a few years ago titled, We Really Do Need Each Other).

January 20 late at night thousands of people got a one word twitter from Pastor Brian Houston... "Gidday". His day was just starting and he thought of the twitter world that follows him. Our day was ending. Wednesday was gone for us. We can never go back to add or take away what that day was all about. Did we go to bed angry or stressed? Did we miss opportunity? Was it filled with busyness or did we take time for silence and listen for God's voice?

Never fear. Another day is here right now. Thank God for creating day and night. He is present in both. I'm going to make the most of it, and we can use twitter to help a little. Encourage a friend. Pray with a friend until they are feeling stronger. Take a long look in Jimmie's blue eyes and ask him how things are going. Get encouragement from Jeff's daily blog on Awakening21 fast and prayer.

I'm glad for the day I decided to use twitter. Always wanted to hear more of T.D. Jakes since Creative Church Conference (C3) a few years ago and I just "hear" his voice now on twitter. It's amazing the people who have twitter accounts! Try it, you might like it. www.twitter.com

What Do You Have in Your Hand?

I went on a hunting expedition this morning for the multiple stories of Jesus feeding multitudes of people. (Mt. 14:13-21, Mt. 15:32-39, Mk. 6:30-34, Mk. 8:1-9, Lk. 9: 12-17, Jn. 6:1-13). There is a common thread in these accounts that is amazing. Jesus told, and still tells His disciples (that would be us!) "you feed!" How are we ever going to feed so many Lord? Whatever Jesus blesses will be multiplied and it will be done. Jesus is telling us not to fret when hundreds come, because thousands are coming!

Today on the news I saw an example in Haiti of God's people taking care of business. No one is waiting around for someone to come and help them out. I wouldn't call it a well-oiled machine, but the job of caring and loving survivors is getting done.

Their church lies in ruins in the background. They have arranged shelters for themselves and any neighbor who comes into the church property. Fires are going, huge pots of stews are being cooked. Each of God's people have given what PENNIES they have in their hands and from that little bit, God is giving much. Vegetables, fruits and perhaps a little meat. Their faces show their trust is in the Living God! The earthquake has strengthened their faith and they are ALL sharing what they have. They know they are the blessed of God. We don't have much in the way of problems do we?

Every day we have a roof over our heads, food on the table and clothing to wear, gas in the car to get to work. Let us be thankful and realize when tough times, really tough times come, our Father never abandons us. Be encouraged today to give what you have in your hand. Haiti is one of the poorest nations on this earth, yet in the middle of their adversity, Christians have their own "Feed-a-Block" going. God bless His people in Haiti.

Vision 2

Yes; without vision, the people perish. "When people do not accept divine guidance [vision],they run wild. But whoever obeys the law is joyful." Prov. 29:18 NLT. Now, "Vision 1" is complete.

I've been reading of the loaves and fishes. In the three accounts I read, Jesus had compassion on the people. Love compelled Him to feed and take care of the people who came to Him with their needs. When Jesus blesses what we give, there is more than enough to go around.

What a large vision for the disciples. You feed...you feed...you feed. And with the blessing of Jesus, they did just that. No one went away from the provision hungry. I love the prefix, pro and suffix, vision! At the beginning it must have seemed an impossible task. All by ourselves it will always be so, but we will never have to be anxious about the vision God gives. He will never leave us or forsake us.

This is no small mission Jesus has given us. From the beginning, it's been large vision. Consider the Great Commission...go into ALL the world and preach the gospel. Everything God does is big. Creation vision, big. Salvation through Jesus Christ, the most powerful vision the world has ever experienced. God's vision for love, so great it's never ending. It's difficult to imagine anyone ever turning down the blessing of being part of this. Even if our part is small, when it's together, God will bless it.

Keep your eyes and ears open for the next few weeks concerning vision. Pray. Talk with friends about vision. Churches all over the world are getting ready to see a move of God so great...There are no words for it, except be ready. No one is left out, just say yes and God will provide for vision. Opportunities will seem to pop up out of no where. Just look at the news today, the terrible quake in Haiti and Dominican Republic. Look, just look at the outpouring of compassion God is giving people to help rescue, to heal, to provide. This is God moving in our earth. This is so big, it overshadows everything else we hear in the media . This is the Great Commission in action. Action has been a big part of TRC as long as we have been attending, almost six years. I expect it to soar and we will never look back except to thank God for what He has done in the past.

Can we do this? In our really small Monroe? In the power of His might, we will do it. God says.

Vision

I've been praying since yesterday for blog words to write about God's vision. Every day we know that God has been stepping up the pace of ministry through TRC, but putting living words to the vision that He has given is another thing. It's like trying to explain the presence of Jesus. Words are wholly lacking to describe what that means in the heart. It's the same with vision.

There are certain things we know about vision. We perish without it. "Where there is no vision, the people perish; but he that keepeth the law, happy is he." There's a clue, obedience to the will of God. Jesus very simply called his disciples, "Come, follow me." No big explaination, no great response from the disciples about what questions they may have had, if they did have questions. (Do you suppose Judas thought to himself, "what's in it for me?" Just wondering.)

The call of Jesus covers everything. Anxious about the unknown? Come, follow me. How will I have time for everything? Come, follow me. I will if... What is that to you? Come, follow me. I don't have much. Come, follow me. I'm weak, come follow me. Whatever we can come up with, Jesus says: "Come, follow me."

The second part of Vision soon.

Sweet Presence of Jesus

Early this morning my granddaughter Rosemary and I had a twitter exchange about a worship song titled "This is our God." It's one of many worship and praise songs that Hillsong has produced. The song is the title to the cd. Well worth having it.

This afternoon I was doing some veggie shopping at Uwajimaya in Bellevue, thinking this whole time about worship and found myself rushing to get done with errands and get home. I knew an "event" with the Lord was about to happen. I got my iPod and started listening to the song. Had to play it again. And again and again. How precious and sweet is the presence of Jesus our Lord! We are powerfully changed in His presence. Oh, if all the world would know how beautiful our Savior is!

Since being a part of TRC, the way I look at praise and worship has been changed forever.

We are created to worship the Lord. All of God's creation has a desire to worship something greater than what we are, so some create no-gods so they can "see" their god, but their no-god will forever be what it is, a no-god without power to love, create, forgive, or bless. We have the honor to worship the true and living God, and I pray all of us will come to prayer and worship looking at worship with new eyes. We can have high expectations because of who our God is.

I pray this Sunday we all come expecting to know the presence of Jesus as we worship together. Let's thank God we still have the privilege of freely worshiping Him with all that we are.

Christmas Eve 2009

Must see! Our granddaughter Rosemary just posted pictures and comments from the evening together. She and her husband Josh, also known as CB1, have a definite flair for capturing everything with pictures. That's why you must see! www.chakulablog.com This is their food blog and it is very much like them; joyful, colorful, and passionate. Click on the link here, or on the left side of my blog and you'll be there.

2010:Men and Women of Influence

We are chosen by God to be people of influence in our families, the Church, our neighborhoods, our nations, our world. God hasn't called us into His great kingdom to be men and women sitting on the sidelines of life.

I've been thinking about influence since before Christmas; who has influenced me, who are the great influences from the Bible, what great pastors have we had that have influenced us? Some of the greatest influences have been people with humble spirits. Most have never been well known. Others from the Bible are favorites of all of us. I love the life of Esther. Her circumstances of being an orphan could have had a negative influence on her, but God had big plans for her. From God's point of view, it doesn't matter what our background has been. Many times He chose the humble to do His greatest work. The shepherd boy David faced down the giant and influenced his nation for God the rest of his life. And what of Gideon? Saul/Paul had a confrontation with God and look how the world has been influenced by Paul's obedience?

It's true, no matter who we are, because of His Spirit in us, we are men and women of influence. World changing, nation changing, life changing influence. Just coming to church, doing the bare minimum (no such thing in God's kingdom), isn't for any of us. If someone in your life has said to you, that you'll never amount to anything, I challenge you to reject that in Jesus name because it's a lie.

2010, twenty-ten, MMX, however you want to put it, dust off your gifts that God has placed in you and use them to influence people...this year. If you're wondering how that will happen, come to TRC Sunday, 9:30 and 11:30 AM and you will hear about prayer and fasting. Put yourself in God's hands and you will know what He wants you to do.