Sweet Potato Pie

I felt the Holy Spirit prompting me to take a local homeless man some awesome sweet potato pie that my wife had made the day before. So brought the pie to him and we ate a piece together and he began to pour his heart out to me. He told me that he was tired of the lifestyle that he was living and that he was ready to stop abusing alcohol and get off the streets. I explained to him that it is only through Jesus that he could do this, he agreed totally having tired to do this through his own strength in the past. We then prayed together, it was a very powerful moment to see Jesus at work in such a real way! Praise God! I and my freinds are going to shower this man with the love of Christ in the coming day! Please pray for him and us! Soli Deo Gloria!!

Jesus is under the bridge

Mother Tersea once that it is among the poor and destitute that you find Jesus in the most distressing disguises. My Friends and I found Jesus under a bridge last Friday night in the form of two elderly homeless people. The entire group knew these two people, being that they had reached out to them in the past. In an effort to put flesh on the scriptures we went to show these folks what the Love of Christ looks like through clothing and something warm to eat.

I have found in the past that it is through the these types of people that God chooses to speak, and this night was no different. These two fellows were so grateful for the food and clothing that we had brought that night, they continued to thank us and tell us how great we were because of what we were doing. I finally responded to there grateful thanks by saying that we were not anything great or special, that we were the same as them. To this one of the drunken homeless men responded, "Yes you are something great and special and we are too, because we are His children. It is God that gives each of us every breath we take, it is God who gives us Life. So if we are alive it is because God wants us alive and that makes us special." After this man said this another drunken homeless man prayed for the group. I stood in awe of how God spoke and is speaking through people like this. These are truly the types of people who Jesus said would be first in His Kingdom.

Is it not true though? The words of this Homeless man? For those people who are children of God, we are special, we are His. His children have the Holy Spirit living inside of them! This is something the scripture make clear, if the is the case though why do so many times we neglect the fact that the Holy spirit lives inside of us? We rely on our own strength, when we could be relying on His. We so many times live like unbelievers who have no Holy Spirit inside of them. When I look through the book of Acts I see followers of Jesus who through the Holy spirit healed the sick, walked away from stonings (which should have killed them) and even raised people from the dead. They did this through the strength of God and people came to repentance because of the strength that was displayed! May we not rely on our own strength, may we rely on God's strength. May we begin to live radically like the early church did. They relieved that God's ways, power and plans were higher than their own and God used them to "turn the world upside down".

We have EVERYTHING but we have NOTHING

My eyes are now open to the abundance of our nation. We live in a place where we have access everything at a click of a button. For most our fridges are full of food, and our closets packed with clothing, more than we will ever wear. We take these luxuries for granted, most of the time never really praising the God who has so freely given to us. I remember the day I returned home from my trip, how i walked into my home dropped my bags and sat on my couch with the air conditioning blasting. Something happened as I sat there though all peace began to leave me. As i gazed around at my home I realized how good I had it. As I sat the Lord reminded me of a man that I saw on our buss ride into Curitiba. As we bussed to the place we would minister the first week of our trip (8 hour bus ride I might add) I had alot of time to think and alot of time to gaze at the beautiful country side in Brazil. As I stared out the window at the awe striking hill side at one point though I saw a hole which had been dug. As I looked closer at the hole I noticed smoke billowing out and upon even closer inspection I saw a man in the hole. That hole was that man's home. That man represents something deeper though, you see this man had nothing only a hole and we have nothing either. We can acquire everything our heart could want but at the end of the day we are wretched, pitiful and naked on our own. Only through Christ do we exist, only through his love, mercy and grace. There is a story in acts 3 were we see that the disciples realize this fundamental truth. When Peter and John are asked by a lame beggar for some change, they reply "No silver or gold do I have, but what I do have I will give you" After saying this Peter and John command the lame man to rise in the name of Jesus. That man was healed that day. For those who are followers of Jesus, today we have no silver or gold, only Christ. For those who are followers, we have been breathed into by the Creator of the universe, we have been given the words of life by our maker. May we be as Peter and John, speaking the words of life over the lame in spirit, telling the world about the love of Jesus and the extent of his mercies. May we not only do this with our words, but with our actions as well. "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me I also send you" Then He breathed on them saying, "Receive the Holy Spirit".

Brazil 5/14/09

So I leave for Brazil tomorrow and I am super excited. My heart is missions, the are around 2 billion people around the world who have yet to hear the Gospel. 2 BILLION PEOPLE. That number of lost souls is currently on its way to hell there is no easy way to put it. I so desperately want to see they book of acts come to life in our day and time to see multitudes come to Christ when he is preached. To see the lame walk, the blind see, the mute speak is my desire and all of this bringing glory to our God, drawing people to him because of this. It can and will happen but only through faith. Its sad to see in our day and time a people who claim to love their risen Savior but yet have more faith in a gecko than they do in Jesus. People wonder sometime why we are not seeing miracles that often, my Friends its a matter of the heart.
A boy who was afflicted with epilepsy was brought to Jesus disciples once and was asked to heal the boy. After the disciples prayed and prayed and prayed they realized that he was not being healed, so they bring the boy to Jesus who scolds them, calling them faithless and twisted. Jesus then heals the boy no problem at all. They disciples later asked JC why they could not heal the young boy and he simply said, "Because of your little faith". (Matt 17:14-21) Jesus tells us in this passage that if we have faith the size of a mustard seed, we could move mountains. Think of what Christ could do through us if we faith the size of that very mountain He was speaking of, Jesus would use us to turn the world upside down. May we have faith in Jesus and not in a farm (state farm). May we move mountains and my our Faith be the size of mountains. "The city authorities shouted, These are the men who have turned the world upside down and have come here too" (Acts 17:6, emphasis added)