Randy Dean Ministries

Christmas Beauty

2011-12-13T13:05:00.000-08:00

I have not always loved Christmas. I tried real hard when I was a kid with some successes and some terrible failures. What I didn’t know then but I’ve learned since is that drug addictions and family dysfunctions don’t take a holiday break….in fact, they ramp it up. It can be summed up in the holiday greeting I grew up with, “Merry Kiss My A__”. Lovely sentiment, isn’t it?

But somewhere in life with two little kids and a wife who grew up with a family that relished Christmas, I had a Scrooge-like epiphany. Something, somehow broke into my reality and lodged in my heart and thinking. This life, this world, this one and only shot we have at spreading good cheer, needs Christmas.

And here, I am not talking about the Christmas “wars”. That’s nonsense. If I’m upset about losing influence in the world due to the fact that not enough people say, “Merry Christmas”, it is not a sign that the nation is in a moral free-fall….it’s a sign that I need to regain my credibility.

And, I am not talking about the droning of some who argue that Jesus’ Birthday is not actually December 25th (they’re right), or that we need to end the commercialization of the holidays (simple heart-felt gifts are always of higher value than money spent), or that various traditions of Christmas have been borrowed from a variety of pagan rituals (yep, it’s true; along with the modern calendar, astronomical maps and more names of people places and things than an encyclopedia could list) … blah, blah, blah.

I still believe this life of multiple disappointments and grieving needs a Christmas break. This world of scary people and hatred needs a Christmas break. This one and only shot we have at spreading good cheer, needs Christmas.

It’s about the insertion of beauty in a collection of far too much indignity and disgrace. It’s about clearing a small patch of ground, declaring a cease fire and singing Silent Night. I looked this up in Wikipedia, so the details might not be completely accurate. Just bear with me and read this;
"The truce began on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1914, when German troops began decorating the area around their trenches in the region of Ypres, Belgium, for Christmas. They began by placing candles on trees, then continued the celebration by singing Christmas carols, most notably Stille Nacht (Silent Night). The British troops in the trenches across from them responded by singing English carols.

The two sides continued by shouting Christmas greetings to each other. Soon thereafter, there were calls for visits across the "No Man's Land" where small gifts were exchanged — whisky, jam, cigars, chocolate, and the like. The artillery in the region fell silent that night. The truce also allowed a breathing spell where recently-fallen soldiers could be brought back behind their lines by burial parties. Proper burials took place as soldiers from both sides mourned the dead together and paid their respects. At one funeral in No Man's Land, soldiers from both sides gathered and read a passage from the 23rd Psalm:

The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the path of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.”

In a world of reality shows that become ugly reality, we need beauty. In a world of unhinged ego, we need beauty. In a world where a friend of mine presides and weeps over a daily parade of human agony in the justice system, we need beauty. In a world where the f-bomb is a noun, a verb, an adjective, an adverb and artistic musical expression, we need beauty.

I want you to understand why I don’t care if pagan paltry has had a role in shaping Christmas. In my opinion, if something is beautiful, it was created by and belongs to God. Winter solstice provides a unique opportunity for reflection on dark bone chilling nights. In the mind-set of the Old Testament, if you touched a leper, you got leprosy. But now, on this side of the Cross, when we touch the leper, the leper is healed! Some people just need a bigger God, a far more real Jesus and much more completely defeated prince of darkness.

Let me tell you about my own personal Christmas tradition that brings me to tears every year. I started this when my kids were tiny. Late on Christmas Eve, after everything is done and a quiet has settled in, I take my car keys (or bells if they are available) and I go outside. I look up at the sky as if to look for Santa, throw my head back, jiggle my keys and as loud as I can I shout, “HO, HO, HO! Merry Christmas!” I’m not kidding. Ask anyone who lives within a mile of me. Dogs howl and the valley around me echoes….and I cry.

I cry because it is my shout for beauty. I cry because I hope some kid somewhere hears me and wonders if there really is a Santa. I cry because I love the moment. In this one and only shot for bringing peace on earth and good will toward all people, beauty deserves at least 15 minutes of fame every year.

So, Merry Christmas…HO, HO, HO!

Pre-Christian World

2011-10-27T11:01:00.000-07:00

It has been said that Christianity has not failed but that it has rarely been authentically attempted. I believe we are not living in a "post-Christian" era as much as we are living in a PRE-Christian era; a time of genuinely REpresenting the beauty of Christ and the true character of His Father.

What if we are not at all living in a society of past Christian glory? What if the history we tend to see only with the most romanticized ideals does not at all support the notion that our best days of faith are behind us? Isn’t it possible we’ve never known a truly, majestically thorough impact of genuine Kingdom Come influence in the U.S.A. and the western world?

Think about it; a Christian nation did not advocate the ownership of slaves. Christianity was not the core value supporting the Natives of this land being herded off to reservations and marginalized into the near extinction of their culture. It was not a Christian nation that forbade women the right to vote for most of our history. A nation living out the full bloom of Christ like beauty did not sponsor segregation with its ignorant “separate but equal” world view.

To be perfectly transparent about it all, some people painted the above crimes with the brush stroke of their silly interpretations of the Bible, but they were utterly and completely wrong! The error of their ways is so thoroughly egregious it is impossible to say with any certainty how long it will take to live it down!

Here’s my thundering point; it is utterly and completely possible that we are wrong to think of our current day as being a “post-Christian” era! I’m proposing that to live in the illusion of our past being something it was not is to rob us of the potential of an outrageous dream inspired faith for today and tomorrow!

We have not yet seen what God could do in a truly Christ inspired environment. “Behold, these are the fringes of His ways; and how faint a word we hear of Him! But His mighty thunder, who can understand?” (Job 26:14).

Our day is a time of birth pains waiting the revealing of the authentic children of a Father Whose love is prepared to make an appearance on the stage of history. What wonders we will behold are limited only by our allegiance to fables of the past.

Heal the Sick and Say, "This Is the Kingdom!"

2011-10-11T18:13:00.000-07:00

Two years ago I was awakened by the Presence of God on a Sunday morning. He poured into my heart the following promises for healing in our house and upon our region. The phrase “deluge and oceanic appearance of a Healing Presence and an environmental shift” is as near a quote as I can ever remember God speaking to me.

I urge you to join us in believing for these broken areas of our humanity to be healed in magnificent ways. This day October 11, 2011 we covenant again to the promise of God for our region.

God has promised me: A deluge and oceanic appearance of a Healing Presence and an environmental shift for the following 7 areas of healing and health;
1. Emotional healing; from unfounded anxiety, sudden-harsh, but brief; crippling nevertheless~ healed!

2. Thought life healing; self destructive-from self sabotaging success to unreasonable surrender to defeat~ healed!

3. To be significantly loved; undeniably, permanently connected to significant relationships ~ healed!

4. Healing from the inability to effectively convey the truest quality of love~ healed!

5. Healing from the victim mentality; asserting that my life has challenges that only others can correct ~ healed!

6. Healing from the spirit of poverty; “there’s never enough” must change to, “there’s more than enough” ~ healed!

7. Radical, raw, real, recognizable physical healings. YES, YES, YES!

As our doubts abound, so the pain will continue to own our quality of life. As a faith and passion for God and His presence abounds, so will our quality of life arise. Stay where you are and keep what you've always had. Or, you can arise and reach for what you have never known and you will grow beyond you're wildest dreams.

MQ = IQ

2011-09-29T14:28:00.000-07:00

Business and management gurus tell us that a person’s ability to think metaphorically is as important as intelligence quotients; hence my title, MQ = IQ.
I think that sails beyond the business world and is exquisitely true for all of life. Metaphor is defined as a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable. “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse” is a simple metaphor. It begs the listener to expand their knowledge base without undue or extreme literal explanation.

The Bible is rich with metaphoric delights. The person who says that every word is intended to be taken with a wooden and literal eye is unwittingly draining the Book of its potential awe and power. Even “Thou shalt not murder” grows when the Holy Spirit is allowed the breath of Jesus who says, “But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty…whoever says, ‘you fool’ shall be guilty…”. Suddenly murder becomes a subject of inventory for every single one of us whose resentment, dishonor and unkindness lives unchecked neatly tucked away in our hearts.

Cognitive researchers whose life is spent in thinking about how people think (how’d you like to live with one of these folks?) tell us that as the world grows more complex “imaginative rationality” has become ever more valuable. Metaphorically speaking in a tired cliché that’s called, “thinking outside the box”.

The Apostle Paul said it this way, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of His calling and what are the riches of His inheritance in the saints”. We are on the brink of a spiritual renaissance, or as Kris Vallotton calls it, “the eve of construction”.

Literalists have the world blowing up while others of us have the earth being consumed in the passions of an outrageous God whose Throne is encircled by a rainbow and surrounded by a leadership team saturated with eyeballs beyond count and bodies carried about by six wings.

Which reminds me; God told Noah that every time He looked at a rainbow He would be reminded to spare creation. As if to underscore this notion, God filled His own Great Room with a round rainbow. Metaphor or not, that’s just cool.

Wake Up!

2011-09-06T09:06:00.000-07:00

I’ve noticed when I hear, “They need to wake up!” or the twin saying,
“They need a wake up call!” the clear suggestion is that someone else needs an alarm clock blast. Oh, and here’s the best one, “This nation needs a wake up call!” Seldom is it said, “I need a wake up call!”

Ephesians 3:14, “For this reason it says, ‘Awake, sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’”

The definition for “awake” in this passage is of particular interest to me. It means to collect one’s faculties, to waken. To rouse from sleep, sitting or lying, disease and death, obscurity, inactivity, ruins, non-existence. To awake, lift up raise and rear up, to stand and take up.

My definition is this: change your patterns. Shake up your standard procedures. Get out of your predictable thinking and force yourself into emotional, intellectual and spiritual fresh air.

A few days ago I downloaded a bargain book to my Kindle, “Poke the Box” by Seth Godin. The basic premise is about a researcher who built a simple buzzer box and put it in front of a one year old child. The box had 2 buttons, a buzzer and light. Push one button and the light comes on, push the other button and the box buzzes. Left in front of a child long enough and the little tike will learn to “poke the box” for the reward of sound and light. The sub title of this bargain book is, “When was the last time you did something for the first time?” I’m officially on the lookout for things to do for the first time.

America wakes up when I wake up. Others will wake up if I wake up, if for no other reason but to keep an eye on me to make sure I’m not about to disturb their snoozey lifestyle.

Revival does not come when we pray for the nation to be revived. Revival comes when I draw a circle, jump in the middle of it, throw everyone else out of that circle and I pray for the one person in the circle …ME… to be revived. In fact, I would say it this way; the whole world is waiting for me to WAKE UP!

How To Walk on Water

2011-08-02T12:46:00.000-07:00

Ephesians 4:31 “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.”

I’m amazed at how many folks who read the Bible and say they believe every word can find so many routes around actually taking the Bible seriously when it comes to a passage like this one. Some of these same people can quote chapter and verse about what God has to say about sin in other folks, yet they don’t seem nearly as fascinated by what the Bible has to say about their own sin.

Ephesians 4:31 is a directive straight for the heart of the church. Get rid of bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander and malice. Here’s how each word of these nasty negatives is defined:
1. Bitterness – poison, sharp harsh feelings, acridity (the state of being constantly irritated)
2. Wrath – literally means to “blow smoke” or breathe hard. Fierce feelings of indignation.
3. Anger – violently passionate, indignant and generally abhorrent of others.
4. Clamor – to shriek or croak like a crow. An outcry of grief or agitation.
5. Slander – to vilify people. The greek word is “blasphemia”; as if to blaspheme a human like we might otherwise blaspheme God!
6. Malice – to aim worthlessness. To carry bad feelings and vilification of others.

I love the R.D.V. of the Bible….the Randy Dean Version. Ready? Here’s the R.D.V. of Ephesians 4:31; “Keep a healthy internal review of your emotions so that you are consistently aware of and removing from your heart every wasteful negative emotion. Sharp harsh feelings toward anyone for any reason must go! Breathing hard and fierce against anyone for any reason must go! Being indignant, disgusted and dwelling on how “against” someone your ideas are, must go! Making rude noises or disgusted sounds about other people must go! Turning people into villains because they don’t share your opinions, must go! (In fact, learning to look at all people as the expression of the image of God should keep this nasty habit far from you. Imagine yourself talking about God the way you talk about some people. It would be blasphemous!) Lugging around a generalized bad feeling about anybody and thus diminishing the value or worth of anyone for any reason, anywhere must go! Why? Because we were not designed to carry these high levels of toxicity in our bodies or our minds; we were designed to carry only the love and forgiveness that each one of us received from Christ and give it away as much as we like receiving it.”

I take aim at this kind of moral inventory on page 97 of my book, RADIANCE "The crippled man lowered through the roof in the Gospel of Mark had not spoken a word, but Jesus started the conversation by telling him that his sins were forgiven. The woman caught in the act of adultery and brutally dragged to Jesus had not whispered a word of repentance when Jesus took charge of the situation with the anointing to forgive her. The butchers standing around the cross were barely coherent due to their vile task, but Jesus spoke to the mountain of their sin and commanded forgiveness upon them."

Jesus didn’t have any of the Ephesians 4:31 list of poisons in His system. He didn’t have it in Him to wonder, “I wonder if this guy is really sick or if he just likes the attention? I wonder if this lady has done this before? Maybe she’s got it coming. If these jerks tearing my body to shreds only knew who they were touching, they’d be plenty sorry…in fact, hey God! Show these perverts how wrong their sin is!”

No wonder Jesus was full of life when He called Lazurus out of the tomb. No wonder Jesus could touch the sick and they were immediately healed. No wonder a woman washed His feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. No wonder He walked on water…His personal burden was very light.

I’m preparing my body to be a living sacrifice emptied of toxins and consumed with the Presence of God. I’m longing to be just as light as Jesus.

Less is More...

2011-07-14T10:19:00.000-07:00

If Christianity is to be genuinely Christian, we have no choice but to reach for a more authentic, happier and transcendent spiritual life. Less debates, more delights. Less damning, more dancing. Less political obsessions, more passionate worship. Less self-righteousness, more unselfishness. Less condemning, more compassion. Less pettiness, more powerful living!

If the powers of darkness can not get us to live outright dark lives, they will opt for having us dipped in self serving piety and walled up against the very world we could be joyously serving. No sin is so binding as the sin that masquerades as fierce opposition to sin!

If good, righteous living was all God ever wanted from His people, He would have had everything He needed in the Pharisees of Jesus’ day. If having a crowd whose disgust for national sin was accentuated with a proud higher standard was the end to all of God’s dream, He would have never inspired Jesus to say, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means, ‘I desire compassion, and not sacrifice’, for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners”.

If Christianity is to be genuinely Christian, we have no other choice but to arise to a shining brilliance of delighted and thrilling lifestyles of the beauty of God alive in us. Our self serving righteous misery is not illuminating a dark world. The only righteous living God is sponsoring today is a celebration of the bounty of heaven on earth.

Less misery, more party! -- “Let’s get it started in here!”

Kris Vallotton's Eight Core Values Regarding Eschatology

2011-05-18T13:55:00.000-07:00

This is sooo good I'm tempted to say, "The Lord showed me these 8 things....".... then again, I'm allergic to dishonesty.

Unless you've been living in a cave lately, you've likely heard of the current hoopla from a group that believes "We Can Know...because Noah knew, WE can know". According to them, Saturday is the rapture and October 21st is The End.

In my book, Radiance, I do address nonsense like this, but Kris' words below establish a brief but powerful grid for discernment. Give a read...then pass it along. I routinely vaccinate the sheep under my care with truth like this as an ounce of prevention worth a TON of healing. Enjoy-

Kris Vallotton’s 8 Core Values Regarding Eschatology or
“the End-Times”
1. I will not embrace an end-time world view that re-empowers a dis-empowered devil.
2. I will not embrace an eschatology that takes away my children’s future and creates mind-sets that undermine the mentality of leaving a legacy or an inheritance or my kid’s future. I intend to leave my children a world in revival.
3. I will not tolerate a theology that sabotages the clear command of Jesus to make disciples of all nations and the Lord’s Prayer that the earth would look like heaven. Why is it that just the bad things have to be fulfilled? What about the amazingly good things?
4. I will not allow an interpretation of the scriptures that undermines hope for the nations and for the restoration of ruined cities.
5. I will not allow an eschatology that changes the nature of a good God.
6. I refuse to accept any mind-set that celebrates bad news as a sign of the times and a necessary requirement for the return of Jesus Christ.
7. I am opposed to any doctrinal position that pushes the promises of God into a time-zone that cannot be attained in my life or generation and therefore takes away any responsibility I have to believe God for them in my life-time.
8. I don’t believe that the last days are a time of judgment nor do I believe that God gave the church the right to call for wrath on sinful cities or nations. There is a Day of Judgment that God alone has the right to pass any judgment…but even that is a DAY …not days.

Double or Nothing

2011-05-03T14:53:00.000-07:00

This blog is about me. Yes, it is all about me. I need to read it. I need to live it and I need to express this. I don’t necessarily need anyone else to read it nor do I need anyone else to feel as I do. As Barney Fife used to say, “Nothing to see here folks, move along.”

Yesterday I found myself needing to put a Word in the atmosphere. I was duty-bound and inextricably drawn beyond ME. Yesterday was the first full day of our nation digesting the news about Osama Bin Laden’s death...BUT, this blog isn’t going to be about that. I’ve moved on to something far, far larger for me. But to get there, I’ve got to go back one day.

So, let me tell you about me (get the idea?....ME). Sunday night, when the networks jumped on the TV screen with the bulletin about Bin Laden, my most visceral reaction was a fist pump. My gut said, “YES!”, and then the Holy Spirit said, “Virus alert”. Later, after I went to bed, I laid there feeling dirty. I had to get up and work this out.

I do believe that one duty of civil government is the protection of its citizens. They bear the sword, in a righteous sense, for good purposes for those who are potential victims of genuinely bad people. Romans 13:3,4 “Rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath upon the one who practices evil.”

While humanity sorts out its need for salvation, I’m thrilled that Navy Seals bear a sword for our protection. But, I am committed to labor for the change of all of society until that day when we can beat our swords into plowshares (Micah 4)! The fact that the military has to do what they have to do is to ME a testament to my failure to do what I should be doing… praying, laboring and seeing “on earth, as it is in heaven” through the wielding of MY sword!

I failed where 24 brave Navy Seals succeeded. For that, they have my undying gratitude and my genuine honor…THEY ROCK! That being said, now I have to deal with ME!

The sword I carry is the Living Word of a Transcendent Force of the Immaterial. My sword is destined to be regarded with a higher respect for world changing power than the swords that stopped Osama Bin Laden. And yet, I failed to carry my sword to that destiny so now, I have to deal with ME.

I am moved to repent, moved to grow, moved to clutch this conviction and I am being seized to step up to my assignment in this life. I AM dealing with me. I am an elder in today’s church, an elder who dreams a dream because I have invited the Holy Spirit to roar in me all the days of my life. True elders must rule in a worthy manner to the Spirit’s dream.

I Timothy 5:17 says, “Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching…”. I hold preaching and teaching as a holy skill with a Kingdom high potential. To ME, preaching is not about entertaining a crowd; it is about healing, revelation power and literally changing the world by putting the Kingdom of God in the soil as a seed which will dominate every field.

Jesus said of Himself, “…the Spirit is upon Me because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel…” (Luke 4). All through the ministry of Jesus, believers and unbelievers alike knew that His message was with authority; force and tangible power. The atmosphere around Him changed when He spoke.

This is about me. I aspire, seek and yearn to be one worthy of double honor because I am passionately fulfilling an assignment to put a Word out that has tangible atmospheric efficacy and usefulness. Now, back to the hours that followed my “fist pump” last Sunday night…

After a dozen attempts to clear my mind and go to sleep, I finally got up, opened a Bible and found Proverbs 24:17 “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles…”. Remember, this is about ME…

To “let” is to allow for, permit and welcome. I had a choice. At first, I let my heart be glad. Something in me wanted to stay right there and just savor the justice, but the Holy Spirit wouldn’t let me. He had more to say to me.

For ME, to stay right there, to continue to allow my heart to percolate and find relief in the Navy Seal’s victory would have kept me cheated from a ravenous hunger for my own personal victory. Like eating candy before a good nutritious meal, my larger appetite was in danger of being spoiled.

When King Saul, David’s personal Osama Bin Laden, was dying on the battlefield, an unsuspecting and shallow little fellow happened upon the scene (2 Samuel 1). At Saul’s insistence, he assisted Saul in ending his misery. This shallow little guy then assumed that David would love to hear this good news. He found David and brought him the DNA evidence…. Saul’s crown.

David tore his clothes and wept for the rest of the day. No fist pumping. What’s happening here? I can’t speak for anyone else, but for ME, God is offering three life altering prescriptions:
1. Guard your heart from accepting cheap substitutes for celebration. The possibility of the end of the war on terrorism is celebratory but a man’s death, however evil that man, is not a matter for bringing cheer to my soul.
2. Keep your expectations and faith on the highest possible goal on the horizon. My destiny is to preach the impossibly good news of the Kingdom of God until every knee bows to the extravagant goodness of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
3. For David, to kill Saul and celebrate, was to become Saul. For Randy, to be given to deeply celebrate anything less than, “…not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of hosts” (Zechariah 4) is to steep my soul in lukewarm water. If true passion is my destiny, the fire of the Holy Spirit must be my living room.

Yesterday’s “good day for America” (President Obama’s words, and I agree) was yet another wake up call for me. As I said in an earlier paragraph, I am ravenously hungry for Kingdom Come! Too much satisfaction at the wrong table is the worst kind of distraction, for ME.

Paul’s word to Timothy about elders worthy of double honor is my calling and I’m passionate to be found worthy of the same. As such, I’ll always find myself preaching toward an even better day for America. Celebrating the physical sword, while appropriate for the brave who carry it, will always be somewhat muted for ME. Parents often tell their children, “Others may, but you may not” when they have higher aspirations for their sons and daughters.

In 1 Samuel 17 a young David came to the battlefield with lunch for his soldier brothers. Goliath had Israel intimidated into impotency. Upon arrival David heard that King Saul would heap a sizable reward on the household of the man who would defeat Goliath. One hearing of the reward wasn’t enough…just before taking the dare, David asked, “What shall be done for man who kills this Philistine?”

I am unashamedly as aimed to be worthy of double honor as David was for Goliath’s forehead. The Holy Spirit was tapping me on the shoulder the other night. He wanted to know if the fist pump was where I wanted to stay. He was asking if I wanted more honor than the Navy Seals and how far I’d like to go on this quest for double honor. My answer is, “double or nothing”.

Resurrection Insurrection

2011-04-26T11:42:00.000-07:00

In the face of very real dangers in our world, the Church can not afford an anemic teleology or a pitiable theology of destruction and decline. In fact, on this side of the Cross and Resurrection of Christ a demand from Heaven has been put upon the people of God to be laudably and heroically optimistic out of the detonation of the Resurrection!

Jesus’ resurrection is either an anecdotal historical event for my personal future pleasure, insuring my escape from this blue planet roasted to ashes by God’s fury….OR…

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is an ongoing event with an invitation for the faith full person to hungrily reach for its intrinsic calamitous force of life to be practically applied to every day living with every ordinary footstep! The revelation that Jesus staged a jail break from the prison of the pessimistic cycle of the walking dead reverses all need for doom to dominate our voices! “He is risen, indeed!” yearns for expression to resonate through every word we put into the atmosphere.

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit” (Proverbs 18:21) sets an astonishing banquet for a spiritual feast at the appearance of Jesus to His disciples after His resurrection in John 20:21-23. In that account, Jesus passes through a locked door, invites the disciples to inspect His physical wounds, speaks “Peace”, breathes the Holy Spirit on them all and says, “If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them: if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.”

In other words, take a long hard look at the butchery of what is a most unforgiveable deed—the crucifixion of Jesus. Soak it in and then get this revelation in your heart: Resurrection trumped injustice! NOW, get blasted with the Holy Spirit and move out through society with the power to forgive. And not just in the metaphoric sense of spreading good feelings, but in the transcending force of the immaterial world pounding into oblivion the treachery of sin. SET THE WORLD FREE!

Don’t waste your energy on storing food for calamity. Spend your faith in an exhaustive feeding of the world with amazing grace! Don’t give your mind to the zombie virus of “The End is Near”. The outbreak of radiant healing is ours for the release of captive brains and broken hearts! Don’t fall prey to the oldest rip-off of religious prediction societies when they chortle over disasters and human misery. Our new found life vigor must now be lavishly spent in proclaiming, “release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are downtrodden, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” (Luke 4:18,19).

The narrative of Luke 9:51-56 always makes me smile. The disciples are strutting a bit of power obsession when they ask Jesus if He would like for them to call fire down to consume some bad people. The mix of this exchange is both silly and sobering. It is so close to home for us. Jesus simply replies (my interpretation), “What? Are you in any way aware of the spirit you are dipped in when you talk smack like that? I’m not here to roast people…I’m here to restore people!”

I wonder if we know what spirit we are dipped in when it is easier to believe for judgment and collapse? On the other hand, it is a far greater challenge to believe for a Holy Spirit baptism with true grit faith for restoration and resuscitation. One nuance of the Greek meaning for resurrection is, “to stand up again”. Jesus stood up for all humankind. He beckons us to join Him in standing up with Him for our world.

It is time to be THE LIVING for the sake of our time and for the Glory of God!

Mosque Madness

2010-08-30T12:36:00.000-07:00

I simply will not remain silent any more about the “proposed mosque” near the World Trade Center site. The sheer volume of misinformation, the volume of the sheer misinformation and the misinformed voluminous sheer determination to perpetuate misinformation presses me to speak. The following is my own view, my own opinion and my own rant.

The building site in question is two full blocks away from the WTC site. Have you walked the blocks of Manhattan? How many buildings and businesses occupy those two full blocks? How many people would you pass walking those two blocks? Count ‘em…two. full. blocks. It is not overseeing, not adjoining, not connected to the WTC site. It is near, yes, but not a part of the WTC site.

Let me start with one basic premise; in my humble opinion, using this site as a Muslim prayer room, so close to the WTC tragedy is another tragedy waiting to happen. I fear every crazy loon on the planet will target it as their claim to some insane and bizarre attempt for justice. Christian, Islamic and maybe even Jewish extremists will view it the same way the murderous lunatics of 9/11 viewed the World Trade Center Towers. Security alone for this project will likely create a nightmare for the new owners.

But now, let me transition to the true heart of my thoughts…

The building site in question was formerly occupied by a Burlington Coat Factory Store. On September 11, 2001 this building was struck by a chunk of landing gear from one of the hijacked planes. The building was rendered irreparable by that moment and has remained abandoned since. To my knowledge, no church has looked into creating a memorial there. No charitable organization has proffered enough money to purchase it. Until a local mosque showed up to turn it into a prayer room connected to what happened on 9/11, this building was a Burlington Coat Factory store. When the local mosque offered to buy it, it was sold; that’s the American free market system in full operation.

Imam Feisal who leads the local mosque in question (which has been in this neighborhood for several years previous) has been in the employment of the United States government since the George W. Bush administration. He was hired by them to represent the U.S.A. in Islamic countries as a loyal, peace loving citizen of our nation. The Bush administration, no doubt, saw this man’s potential of giving our nation an intellectual, understanding face with which civilized Muslim people could relate. Feisal’s stated goal is, “We want to push back against the extremists”.

His wife, Daisy Khan, was invited to sit on an advisory board overseeing the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum to assist in memorializing the heart wrenching events of 9/11. Again, for the record, both of them have been serving us since 9/11/01. They are not recent employees of the current president; they were contracted by the State Department and the F.B.I. under the charge of our previous, Republican president, George W. Bush. In fact, the F.B.I. has publically stated that their work with Imam Feisel has been, “positive”.

Imam Feisal has been complemented by a neighboring rabbi, Arthur Schneier, who said that the Imam was a man of “like heartedness” to him (the rabbi). Additionally, the presence of the Muslim community in New York City is a well documented historic fact. The mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg (a Republican), is fully supportive of this Muslim physical presence in the former Burlington Coat Factory building because, he thinks it is a restorative gesture. I think that is, at least, a reasonable thought.

Now, it seems to me, that when we look at this proposed Islamic prayer site, two blocks away from the WTC site, we should, at the very least, try and understand the true simplicity of this transaction. All mystery, of any nature, should first be processed in simplicity.

My thought is, maybe, just maybe, this is no more than the desire of genuine, American Muslims to make something good of the terrible events of that terrible day. Since this former Burlington Coat Factory Store was damaged by a piece of one of the hijacked planes, perhaps the thought is that this building is a natural physical point of reference for prayer for healing. Maybe good people want to do something good as a small gesture of reparation for an awful act of cowards. Is that at least possible? I think it is and until proven otherwise, it ought to be given an equal chance to stand or fall on its own merits.

I have gone on record for years, publically wondering why no reasonable Muslim leader was pressing for attention to bravely right the public record of Islam’s supposed peace loving nature. I think now I have seen one reason why civil Muslim leaders have stayed quiet; they get threatened by some of their own followers and have their character assassinated by the loud misinformed masses outside of Islam. Lose, lose…

I am, in no way, a defender of the Islamic religion. I am completely, thoroughly and resoundingly an adoring believer of and in Jesus Christ, Lord of all. That being said, I know that Jesus said, “Love your enemies…” and He said, “…do not resist him who is evil, but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also”.

Remember, I said in the third paragraph I think this project is a security nightmare. For instance, you won’t find me building a Christian house of prayer in Mecca any time soon. However, as a Christian, I believe we should let this project stand or fall on its own merits. If they are, as some suspect, seeking to pour salt in our national wounds, their own evil will be their undoing. But if they are simply seeking some gesture to heal our wounds, why, in the name of all that is pure and holy, would we resist such an act of potential decency?

Start with the truth. Let all your opinions be rooted there. However, if you start with your opinion and look only for the truth that supports your view, you will miss the greater beauty of truth that could make you free. Always start with the truth, even if it is uncomplimentary to your opinion.

I do not like or agree with the Islamic religion and the practice of the Muslim faith. That is my opinion. In the case of this building project near the ground made hallowed by the blood of innocent victims of the World Trade Center terrorist attacks, the truth might be that Muslims are attempting to do something spiritually and lovingly restorative. If that is the truth, and it seems reasonable to me that it is, then I will start there, even though it might cause me to admire an Imam with whom I have enormous religious differences.

If the Imam and all Muslims simply want me and all who disagree with them dead, how is that any different from the goals of Rome and the major religionists of Jesus’ day? How did their blood thirsty, terroristic pursuit work for them? Isn’t the world’s largest Christian denomination today headquartered in Rome?

Wasn’t the story of Saul, who was a religious leader and avowed enemy of Christians, about a man who was “breathing threats and murder against the disciples…and asked for letters to bind women and children” (Acts 9:1,2)? Didn’t that turn out to be one of the most significant miracles of the infancy of Christianity?

As I said at the top of this blog, these words are just my own opinion. When I first heard about a mosque on the WTC site, I reacted negatively, like many people did and still do. So I searched for truth...and my opinion changed when the light of truth weighed in on my views. I hope you'll join me, at least, in the pursuit of truth.

Kids These Days....

2010-06-15T09:19:00.000-07:00

Somewhere along the timeline of my youth I had a deep conversation with myself. Someone had said something harsh and diminishing about me and my generation and it stung. Now, mind you, I’m 57 and this internal chat was going on during the wild ride of the ‘60’s. If you don’t remember it, or have not recently reviewed the history, let me remind you of a few things.

This nation was being torn apart by a string of assassinations. Thousands of soldiers were dying in southeast Asia and those coming home from that bloody war in Vietnam returned to the noise of angry protesters. College campuses were deeply shaken by protests, rioting and blood shed. Drug usage was celebrated as a means of coping and celebrating and, as a result, rock stars routinely died from over-dosing. Days-long urban riots were in the news for at least two summers. At that time, I lived in Milwaukee, inside the cordoned off zone, where soldiers patrolled in front of our apartment house. I could hear gun shots in the night all that week. The Kroger Store directly across the street from us was boarded shut and the corner on the other side of that block had a machine gun posted check-point.

Now let me return to my internal conversation. I told myself to remember what it was like to be a frightened confused kid. I firmly resolved with myself that I would hold these memories as fresh as I could into my adult life so that I would be a man of understanding and compassion for youth. I promised myself that I would avoid at all costs being someone who would flippantly brush off an entire generation with a brusque sneer of, “…kids/youth these days…”. I was determined to remember the pain I felt from those cynical and pessimistic words.

Youth these days have their own set of fears, uncertainties and questions. For example, their generation will tell the next of watching, on live TV, as 3000 souls perished on 9/11. Kids, these days, need our validation, our courage and, I think most importantly, our faith! They want to know who our God is and if our God still loves, “the little children”.

The only way they will know this is if the adults around them are a determined corps of people whose habit is blessing and not cursing the next generation. Have you read the Bible stories about the patriarchs blessing their children? Do you remember how Jesus took children in His arms, blessed them and said, “This is My Kingdom” (Matthew 19:14)?

Kids these days…are absolutely amazing!

Tell Me Your Vision For the World...

2010-05-26T09:28:00.000-07:00

Tell me your vision for the world, not your vitriol against it. Please don’t explain to me how wrong your opponent’s ideas are, tell me how brilliant your ideas are. Why do we love the blame game? Because in faith, politics and relationships blaming others pays off a huge bonus to our ego.

Isaiah 58:9 says, “Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; You will cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you remove the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness…”. We all want God to answer our prayers and respond as quickly as we can cry out. It might surprise you to know that this is what He wants too! Jesus proposed that we would always get whatever we have asked for in prayer (John 15:7). Heaven wants this more than we want it but we have too easily overlooked our culpability in the failure.

We are culpable for unanswered prayer in that we have spent our energy on blame and not progress. In the case of Isaiah’s words God is calling for a fast, not of food and drink, but of negativity that feeds the ego. The prophet’s vision is of a people who become like a spectacular garden glistening with the water of encouragement(58:11). This vision is built upon the premises of the words in verse 9. Look again;
1. Remove the yoke—the yoke of our own making! Which is…
2. Pointing the finger – externalizing the reasons why we can not make progress. A over-fed ego loves to reason why the wide world is conspiring to keep its host down.
3. And speaking wickedness – this Hebrew expression goes to the notion of describing how nothing you do matters or works. It literally means, “nothingness”, the ultimate negative energy.

New Age teachers love to talk about negative and positive energy. Avoiding these terms is surrendering them to that venue and I will not do that! It is clear that this principle is a core value of the Bible. Philippians 4:4-9 concludes with, “…whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of a good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.” Let everything that has breath (could be translated as energy), praise the Lord (Psalm 150:6).

Blame is the ultimate negative energy and praise to God and honor for people is the ultimate positive energy. When we fast the former and furiously embrace the latter our lives will spiritually and psychologically blossom with a beautiful flourish. Blame will easily feed your ego with always being right even at the expense of truth to the contrary. You will not maintain vital connection to God and others in this spirit, however, praise and honor will heal your ego by connecting it to every outside source designed to sustain the real and only you.

Bill Johnson loves to say, “You can not go in faith where you have not gone in intimacy.” Simply put, the more profound my love for God, enthusiasm for life and passion for Kingdom Come reality in my world the more explosive my prayer life will be. If I’m routinely sour about politics, life and relationships it is likely my prayers are extensions of my unpleasant mood.

If I’m lit up through worship and love for Daddy, if I’m drinking in the glory of life all around me, if I’m energized about being a servant with solutions then my life becomes a prayer because positive living is a sacrifice worthy of the King!

Just One Thought Away...

2010-05-20T13:55:00.000-07:00

For the last 3 weeks I’ve been soaking in the words of Mark 8:31-33. In the past they have seemed almost anecdotal, off the main subject and only there to prove how all knowing Jesus was and is. This is Mark’s version of when Jesus asked, “Who do people say that I am?” After Peter hits the bulls eye and is winding up for an astronomic miss, Mark records this, “And He (Jesus) began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. And He was stating the matter plainly. (Amplified Version says it this way, “and He said this freely, frankly, plainly, and explicitly, making it unmistakable) And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him.”

I drew this passage as the starting point for a sermon series on supernatural psychology. I have gone after a few other points from these words, but I didn’t expect to be wonderfully caught by a picture of Jesus standing there with the 12 stating freely, frankly, plainly and explicitly, making it unmistakable how this journey with Him would culminate. I’ve always known that He had warned the disciples but I’ve never been drawn to really calculate the implications of this incredible and altogether missed point of truth.

In order to take you where my mind is (brace yourself) look at the possibility of what would have happened if the Holy Spirit had been allowed to continue with the spirit of revelation that briefly bumped into Peter prior to this. The following is a summary of how different the gospels would have been:
1. At the garden of Gethsemane the disciples could have been riding the wave of the Spirit’s revelation of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection. As such, they might have stayed awake to see the angels ministering to Jesus in the depths of His prayer.
2. No one would have reacted to the arrest of Jesus with anything but subdued yet profound worship.
3. After Jesus’ beating and mock trial Peter might have stood his ground about knowing this man. He might have even been arrested himself; only to be released by a band of angels sent to insure that God’s purposes and promises for Peter would not fail.
4. All but Judas would have been standing at the cross with Mary unafraid and surrounded by the legion of angels that would rather have been rescuing Jesus.
5. And best of all, perhaps, just maybe, they would have all been at the tomb, night and day until the triumphant moment when the angel blasted the stone away and Jesus stepped out. Their shouts would have moved clouds as they declared to one another, “YOU SEE! He told us! He has never lied to us, never mislead us, never given us false hopes! He is LORD!”

Now, we all know this didn’t happen. It would be easy to teach and expound on the reality that the Holy Spirit had not yet been poured out on them in order for them to be this powerfully and profoundly illuminated. We know that it wasn’t until the Day of Pentecost that their collective eyes and hearts were slammed open and they became an army of invincible world changers. But here’s where it gets really interesting….

We live on this side of the resurrection and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit! We have this illumination for the determination of the destiny of the Kingdom’s invincibility! We are the extension of the army they began when at long last they could see, really see the truth that was always there, always teeming with divinely pressurized potential. We have the Holy Spirit on us to lead us into all, all, all truth. There is now no reason, no excuse for any freely, frankly, plainly, and explicitly, making it unmistakable promise to be missed which could otherwise alter history and determine our destiny!

We are all one thought away from achieving our destiny; and that one thought, that one revelation may very well have been laying on our mental book shelf for the past several years! It is that thought which was always a promise that seemed so irrational, so impractical, so far-fetched and even comparable to Jesus saying freely, frankly, plainly, and explicitly, making it unmistakable that His death was not final.

Is your forward progress waiting for your revelation of one simple promise? And is that one simple promise been with you all this time, while you may have been seeking more promises, more prophesy, more encouragement, when all along your greatest revelation has always been with you?

Supernatural Psychology

2010-05-11T09:38:00.001-07:00

Some church folks have nasty habits. Listing all of them would require a large book; maybe I’ll start that manuscript as soon as I’m done with this. One of our many bad habits is that of trashing anything that does not come from us, or even what someone from among us has deemed to be from the unsafe list of us.

Here’s an example: church man A is looking for a good attorney. He meets church lady B at, of course, a church function. He asks her for the name of a good lawyer and she gives him one with these words, “This lawyer is a Christian!” And church man A is off to the races.

What’s wrong with this logic? Three basic fatal flaws: 1. Too many church folk already spend too much time with each other. 2. Being a Christian is no guarantee of being good at anything else, and 3. It ignores the glorious resourcefulness of the wide world around us. We may live in an evil world, but make no mistake about it, we live in a world full of valuable resources!

Psychology is an easy target for some church folks because it comes from “out there”. We really need to get over that fear on several fronts.

Modern medicine has been on the historic map for over a thousand years while modern psychology has only been around for about 150 years. In terms of classic research and development, that qualifies as very young and it may explain some of the idiosyncrasies resident in some psychological circles. But the idiosyncrasies of some is no reason for demonizing an entire profession.

It’s not my purpose here to endorse all psychological enterprise. My purpose here is to turn some lights on for Christians to take a look at the possibility of our cynical review of psychological endeavors. More importantly, I want to make a clear call for the church to be a people and a place of supernatural resource for any and all healing pursuits!

What would happen if the church became known as an environmental influence of profoundly beautiful mental health? What would it look like if the world around us heard that if you hang out with us church folks you’ll feel more secure and lucid? How would our reputation change if pure happiness was known as our most identifiable trait? What would it take for us to be free enough to acknowledge that all of us could stand a wide spectrum of input from the Wonderful Counselor, Jesus (Isaiah 9:6)? And, perhaps accept the assistance of some of His counterparts on earth for a check-up from the neck up?

Isaiah 51:11 says, “So the ransomed of the Lord will return and come with joyful shouting to Zion; and everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.” This sounds to me like God is offering us Supernatural Psychological health and I’m crazy enough to believe this kind of promise has outrageous ramifications for any of us willing to take a dive into the deep end!

Hubble and Horton

2010-04-06T10:43:00.000-07:00

Inestimable, immeasurable, incalculable, fathomless, infinite, inexhaustible, unbounded, limitless; and these are just the descriptors of the universe! What of the God Who made it?

I just read another cosmologist reflection of Hubble’s recent photography who said, “Wow! I don’t get it….we’re dust mites in the bigger scheme of things...” He (or she) went on to say something like this; if pre-Copernicus thinking was drearily limited on the inside of all that we were, how many ways can this view of the infinite universe change us now? (Here’s that link: http://blog.speakingoffaith.org/post/189520874/the-wonder-of-the-cosmos-through-an-upgradedspeakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/2010/asteroids/ )

Before Copernicus we surmised the sun was out there to serve us by revolving around the earth. That view built into human reasoning a shrunken and withered estimate of God and us. Now we know there are trillions of suns and not one of them gives a centimeter of revolving response to the earth. To me, this does not diminish the earth, indeed, it expands our existence and upgrades every possible vision of God.

When Horton heard a Who, his community laughed him to scorn. But dear old Horton could not un-hear what he had heard as surely as we can not un-see what Hubble has seen! If you will…Hubble has seen a Who… and I love how that freaks me out!

Who to you….BOO!

Jesus Versus Christian Terrorists

2010-03-31T13:43:00.000-07:00

“Christian Militia” is what the news media is calling it. I call it Christian terrorists. You might want to duck because I’m about to go after something that needs to be spoken to and it needs to be spoken to rather directly.

After September 11, 2001, I waited for something for which I am still waiting. I wanted to hear a clarion, passionate, piercing and powerful Islamic Clerical voice speak out, consistently and intentionally drawing the proverbial dark line for all the world to see explaining this hideous act of terrorism of that dreadful day did not represent Islam. Yes, I have heard an occasional and respected Muslim leader denounce terrorism, and for that, I am thankful. It just seems to me that Islam has yet to find a true voice to represent itself clearly, at least, in the western world.

But that is not my point. My point here is to step up to my own platform and be a clarion, passionate, piercing and powerful Christian pastoral voice to speak out consistently and intentionally to draw a proverbial dark line for all the world to see explaining that armed militias, cults and even angry noisy churches do not represent authentic Christianity.

I want to take that a step further. Here’s the part where you might want to duck. Matthew 5:21-26 proposes some rather interesting values which we all would do well to revisit at this particular period of history. In these words of Jesus’ Inaugural Kingdom Sermon, we are challenged to go far beyond the rules of the Law.

The Law says, “You shall not commit murder”, but Jesus says, (my paraphrase) “You shall not be people of the minimum requirement. I want to take you where humankind once walked with God in the cool of the day. I have come to fulfill the Law with blazing, living hearts of real love. Your indicator of how this New Heart is functioning will be listening to yourself. The mere utterance from your voice of degrading another human with a dismissive wag of, ‘…you fool…’ will, in My Domain, shout to you that your heart is not yet living supernaturally. Indeed, to hear yourself speak in that tone will, in My Domain, strike you as if you had pointed a gun at someone and coldly pulled the trigger.”

Christian Militias are the direct result of hearts separated from Heaven by slow and infinitesimal steps away from Heaven through angry unforgiving internal realities tolerated in the name of righteous and holy living. The Christian Militia folks being searched for and arrested today did not start with guns and bombs; they started with words formed in cold dead hearts. The current angry and curt tone of some Christian voices addressing political debates is where Christian terrorists are born.

In a time, not that long ago, when laws in America promoted the marginalization of a race of people, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stepped into the national stage and shouted, “I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word on reality.” This came from a man whose home was bombed, his body scared and his life routinely threatened. He prevailed because his heart was supernaturally connected to The Domain of Heaven and his voice spoke love’s supremacy over hate.

I hear Christians suggesting today that “big government” is stealing our freedoms. Really? Where is the “big government” today that once banned a black child from drinking from the same water fountain as a white child? I propose to you that a young southern preacher crushed that “big government” under his feet with a message of “unarmed truth and unconditional love”.

True Christianity is not angry, much less, violent. True Christianity bears no weapon for revolution other than outrageous faith that all weapons are destined for the blacksmith’s fire for transformation to agricultural benefit (Micah 4:3). True Christianity believes in a God whose desire and actions are capable of ordering a luxurious catered buffet for a productive (and even spirited!) discussion with our most contrary political enemies (Psalm 23:5). True Christianity does not believe in threats, veiled or otherwise. Since true Christianity is not afraid of terror, it knows terror is a bankrupt bargaining tool, never to be brandished in our hands. Indeed, true Christianity has ONLY the Kingdom of God at our hands for the healing of all, up to and concluding in, the healing of the nations.

I read a commentary, not long ago, where in the midst of hand wringing over America’s current political climate, this person intoned, “It’s too late to talk but too early to shoot”. I felt suddenly inclined to run! I wanted to run like someone seeking distance from guilt by association to a crime. Why? Because, according to Jesus, words are indicators of hearts, either steeping in heaven’s bounty or marinating in hell’s vicious cruelty. I simply did not want to risk that writer’s venom near my heart.

I am simply one voice. The word, “Christian” and “militia” are completely incompatible. Additionally, I commit my voice to be given only to loosing love and forgiveness for even my most vocal political enemy.

Church….it is TIME to RE-present Christ. What we need is hearts and internal realities ignited from on high with the insuperable, undefeatable, transcendent supremacy of the Kingdom of God!

Wind Up Alarm Clocks and Dragons

2010-03-04T13:10:00.000-08:00

Like many little boys, I took more than my fair share of risks. Ore boats in dock in Milwaukee were giant invitations to explore. An abandoned zoo had way too many caves and enclosures to ignore. Railroad yards were veritable gold mines of scrap metal and enormous chunks of metal just laying around begging for my attention.

On the less risky side of this equation I came into the possession of a couple of old style wind-up alarm clocks. The kind you might have seen in cartoons that have the big bells on top. I was fascinated by the sheer raw power of these mechanical puzzles. So, like any 10 year old boy, I took one of them completely apart so I could see for myself what made it tick!

At the heart of this clock was the main-spring. Isn’t it interesting today how we strive to have self contained, self powered machines that require little or no outside energy source and long ago we had alarms that needed no batteries, no plug in, no solar panel…just wind it up and listen to it tick. Anyway, I made the mistake of pulling that wind up spring out off of the frame…

What happened next was the spring sprung! It flashed wildly out of control and into uselessness. I tried in vain for hours to pull that spring back into its place. That clock became spare parts.

On to clock number two. This time I knew better than to take the spring off of the frame. This time I simply played with all the other parts and when I was done, I put it back together…my curiosity satisfied. From then on I would watch and listen to that clock and internally imagine all the parts cooperating.

I see Christianity today badly in need of brave little boys and girls who will open it up and explore. I’m not talking about exploring new kinds of church services and inventing catchy new phrases and trendy new slogans. Cleaning the decks and painting the walls of the Titanic would have provided the ocean floor with clean decks and freshly painted walls.

I’m talking about real exploration of truth. I’m talking about brave excursions into fresh revelation for the purposes of rediscovering God, Jesus and the Spirit. And, YES, I know that certain things are like that first main spring that should never be tampered with or you’ll have a pile of useless curled up metal laying on the floor.

But I believe this Easter season is a grand time for some risky adventures in faith exploration. Christianity was not born in a stale library but in a cold tomb when the Holy Spirit said, “Pssst…hey Jesus….wake up….let’s rock the universe with New Creation”.

There is still a 12 year old little boy inside me wanting to know what’s on the other side of that rusty door. In ancient times when map designers drew as far as they knew to draw, they wrote the words at the edge of the unknown, “Here Be Dragons”. It was supposed to stop sailors from going off into the fatality of the undiscovered. What they didn’t count on was the likes of explorers who were egged on to go see dragons, at worst, but at best, to discover the New World.

I don’t believe that Jesus was risen from the dead so that we could have better church services and hide eggs that we won’t find until they start stinking in a month or so. I think Jesus’ resurrection was for the explosive beginning of a new creation. I think Jesus blitzed the power of darkness and released a New Genesis that has yet to be significantly touched or experienced.

Jesus routed the Lord of the Dragons and invites us to slay all lesser beasts. We have nothing to fear but our own laziness rooted in western arrogance which suggests there are no more reformations needed. Stay where you are and you’ll keep what you’ve always had. Arise and reach for what you’ve never known before and you’ll grow beyond your wildest dreams!

Get a Life... An Abundant Life

2010-02-02T18:00:00.000-08:00

In too many ways to count or give an adequate discussion here, Christianity has become this… thing, a system or even a world view. I know the tired adage, “…it’s not a religion, it’s a relationship”…but even that has become a thing we do and a system we manage. It’s one of the ways too many of us have manipulated conversations into a “witness”. Some poor unsuspecting soul might say to us, “I’m not a religious person” and all of our evangelism training snaps to attention and our mouth parrots the aforementioned phrase … yawn…

Jesus promised life… that’s our witness… being truly ALIVE! One version of that promise says, “…I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance -to the full, till it overflows” (John 10:10). While this is a popular verse to quote, preach and sermonize from, I’m not so sure we are actually living from it as it was truly intended. Jesus promised life! He is saying, “While you are alive, get a life…abundant, dynamic, animated, actualized, vibrant, radiant, happy, healthy, contented, cheerful, satisfied and even exciting.”

He also warned that there is a thief out there stealing, killing and destroying. It seems to me that this boils down to two options: Be alive or be dead. And here I do not mean in the shallow sense of “when you die, do you know if you are going to heaven or hell?” I mean, if you keep dragging air into your lungs, consuming calories and continue to occupy space on this planet are you living and contributing life back out of your consumption of these free-bees? Otherwise, it seems to me, you are offering yourself as a contribution to the thief…a reason for the thief to pursue his stealing, killing and destroying.

Being truly alive means being known for living, being, doing and making others alive as a result. Yet, how many Christians are more known for what they do not do or believe as opposed to what they really are? Living means actualizing the world around us with the energy to create and think. Too often we’ve allowed ourselves to be trapped in the noise of being against others, opposed to their lifestyles, not in favor of a list of laws and governing policies, in a snit about devalued world views and victimized by our perceived or real loss of influence on society. Is that abundant living? NO!

Abundant life is creative in the face of decaying imaginations. Abundant life is solution oriented as opposed to sniveling about problems. Abundant life prophesies answers and never prays the problem. Abundant life plays and prays. Abundant life even plays when it prays and prays when it is playing. Abundant life loves when love is completely unexpected. Abundant life loves love because love never fails.

Abundant life longs for change, longs for a fresh idea, longs for a new sound, longs for the reach of a new day. Life has no room for the shrunken notion of disgust with the past because life knows that the past was once the future. Life celebrates the past while courageous enough to stretch for a completely new day. Yet, while all of this is true, life lives now, not in yesterday, not in tomorrow. Today, this moment, is when life matters.

So get a life… and get it NOW.

Beauty

2009-12-19T10:11:00.000-08:00

I have not always loved Christmas. I tried real hard when I was a kid with some successes and some terrible failures. What I didn’t know then but I’ve learned since is that drug addiction and family dysfunction doesn’t take a holiday break….in fact, in ramps up. It can be summed up in the holiday greeting I grew up with, “Merry Kiss My ___”. Lovely sentiment, isn’t it?

But somewhere in life with two little kids and a wife who grew up with a family that relished Christmas, I had a Scrooge-like epiphany. Something, somehow broke into my reality and lodged in my heart and thinking. This life, this world, this one and only shot we have at spreading good cheer, needs Christmas.

And here, I am not talking about the Christmas “wars”. That’s nonsense. If I’m upset about losing influence in the world due to the fact that not enough people say, “Merry Christmas”, it is not a sign that the nation is in a moral free-fall….it’s a sign that I need to regain my credibility.

And, I am not talking about the silliness of others who argue that Jesus’ Birthday is not actually December 25th, or that we need to end the commercialization of the holidays, or that various traditions of Christmas have been borrowed from a variety of pagan rituals or, or, or… Let me borrow a phrase from the Latin; shut up!

This life of multiple disappointments and grieving needs a Christmas break. This world of scary people and hatred needs a Christmas break. This one and only shot we have at spreading good cheer, needs Christmas.

It’s about the insertion of beauty in a collection of far too much indignity and disgrace. It’s about clearing a small patch of ground, declaring a cease fire and singing Silent Night. I looked this up in Wikipedia, so the details might not be completely accurate;
"The truce began on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1914, when German troops began decorating the area around their trenches in the region of Ypres, Belgium, for Christmas. They began by placing candles on trees, then continued the celebration by singing Christmas carols, most notably Stille Nacht (Silent Night). The British troops in the trenches across from them responded by singing English carols.

The two sides continued by shouting Christmas greetings to each other. Soon thereafter, there were calls for visits across the "No Man's Land" where small gifts were exchanged — whisky, jam, cigars, chocolate, and the like. The artillery in the region fell silent that night. The truce also allowed a breathing spell where recently-fallen soldiers could be brought back behind their lines by burial parties. Proper burials took place as soldiers from both sides mourned the dead together and paid their respects. At one funeral in No Man's Land, soldiers from both sides gathered and read a passage from the 23rd Psalm:

The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the path of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.”

In a world of reality shows that become real reality, we need beauty. In a world of unhinged ego, we need beauty. In a world where one of my readers presides over a daily parade of human agony in the justice system, we need beauty. In a world where the f-bomb is a noun, a verb, an adjective, an adverb and artistic musical expression, we need beauty.

Do you understand why I don’t care if pagan paltry has been thrown on top of Christmas? In my opinion, if something is beautiful, it belongs to God. Winter solstice provides a unique opportunity for reflection on dark bone chilling nights. In the mind-set of the Old Testament, if you touched a leper, you got leprosy. But now, on this side of the Cross, when we touch the leper, the leper is healed! Some people just need a bigger God and a far more real Jesus.

Let me tell you about my own personal Christmas tradition that brings me to tears every year. I started this when my kids were tiny. Late on Christmas Eve, after everything is done and a quiet has settled in, I take my car keys (or bells if they are available) and I go outside. I look up at the sky as if to look for Santa, throw my head back, jiggle my keys and as loud as I can I shout, “HO, HO, HO! Merry Christmas!” I’m not kidding. Ask anyone who lives within a mile of me. Dogs howl and the valley around me echoes….and I cry.

I cry because it is my shout for beauty. I cry because I hope some kid somewhere hears me and wonders if there really is a Santa. I cry because I love the moment. In this one and only shot for bringing peace on earth and good will toward all people, beauty deserves 15 minutes of fame every year.

Merry Christmas…HO, HO, HO!

What If the Church Fell in Love?

2009-12-01T09:24:00.000-08:00

What if the church fell in love? How would we change? What if we removed all of our shaming bumpers stickers about what we perceive as cultural ills and channeled all of that noise into real, supernatural effort to love? How would our message change if Heaven’s Love became our love?

Would we stop threatening the world with catastrophe? Would Jesus’ Word from John 3:16 through 18 sound different to us if we, the church actually fell in love? How would our message change if Kingdom Love became our love?

Would we be far less interested in end times theories that ramp up the pressure getting ourselves motivated to serve God? Would authentic, passionate love of and for God be enough to ignite our labors? Would wildly loving Christians be far more interesting signs of the times than earthquakes and wars? Would sacrificial love born out of God’s bountiful heart into the lives of Christians be much more intriguing than who the next candidate is for “Anti-Christ of the Year”?

Do we know what spirit we are of when we are in any way pleased or interested in bad things happening to bad people? If hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, diseases and calamities fit into our definition of how unhappy God is have we truly calculated the damage we do to the character of the Father and the true love of Jesus Christ? Have we read Luke 9:51-56 with Christ’s core value of radical love burning in our minds?

Does our definition of love require God to be angry and unsatisfied? What role does fear and punishment play in our revelation of God, especially in the face of Jesus, who told us that seeing Him is seeing the Father? Does our definition of love drain the Gospel of real power? Does our definition of love weaken and possibly neutralize the very Word of God which we adamantly require the world to believe? Are we experts in theology and novices in love?

What would happen if the church fell in love?

I’m just asking questions.

Thank You

2009-11-24T10:23:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was nuts. Without boring you with intricate details, I can tell you that the simplicity of getting an insurance check co-endorsed by my mortgage company to pay the roofer for his work took three days, 300 miles of round trips to the bank, four completed forms with six different signatures, five phone calls, five different checks, five individuals, a notary public and a partridge in a pear tree. The actual roofing was done more easily and faster.

Then this morning I opened my mail from yesterday (a task put off due to the aforementioned fiasco) and I read two amazing stories; one about a friend who just returned from a trip to Mexico and the other about a beggar’s donation to Mother Teresa’s work in Calcutta.

My friend’s story recounted how he was blessed to participate in building two new homes in Reynosa, Mexico in six days. That’s right, two homes built in six days. Here’s the run-down….

One home was for a 74 year old man and the other one was for an 87 year old man. Both men were living in squalor and filth. The more significant of the two was the older man who lived under a tarp. I’ve been to Reynosa and I can testify to the dominance of its poverty. For the American mind that has only seen our version of poverty, it is almost impossible to describe. These two men would likely be classified as the worst of the worst among our homeless population. But for Reynosa, they are more likely to be among the average poor.

So, building two houses in six days to replace sticks, bricks and a rotting tarp was fairly simple. My friend celebrated the crowning touch on both houses….doors.

Then I opened a devotional based on some of Mother Teresa’s life experiences. One story immediately grabbed me. A beggar came to Mother Teresa with his handful of a day’s worth of begging. He insisted on giving it to her. She stood for moment staring at the man and she knew that to take this money would mean he would go hungry and to not take the money would be unfair and painful to him. She received his gift and celebrated the joy that filled his face.

I am suddenly and outrageously thankful for the hassle I went through to pay for my new roof. I am filled with gratitude for the insurance money that paid for 20 to 30 more years of a roof over my head. I love my mortgage company and all the people who make my house a dream come true. I love my insurance agent. I love my contractor.

I love my church family who sacrifice to give week after week and those sacrifices, great and small, make my salary look like a king’s ransom for most people living in Reynosa or Calcutta.

I don’t have construction skills and my back wouldn’t last a day digging ditches. My dad, an earthy east Texas oil drilling, truck driving, Teamster Union loving Irishman, once said (out of his definition of love for me), “It’s a good thing you can preach, because you can’t do nothin’ else.” His world was filled with sweat, blood, bare knuckles negotiations, cursing as second language and Chicago traffic jams. His slice of fame came from a picture on the front page of the Chicago Tribune when his truck slid sideways in an ice storm at rush hour and blocked the Dan Ryan Expressway. What’s my point? I am thankful that I live the life of relative ease I am living just by the sweat of my “voice”.

Thank you, all of you reading this, who have given me irretrievable pieces of your life to read my ranting. I love my extended spiritual family from near and far who speak and give blessings to me for nothing more than my ministry gift. Wow…thank you!

Thank you God, I am over yesterday’s nuttiness. Happy Thanksgiving everybody. Gobble, gobble….

Too Much of a Good Thing?

2009-11-18T13:59:00.000-08:00

"There is more hunger for love in this world than there is for bread."
~Mother Teresa~

If what Mother Teresa said is true, and it is, then doesn't it ultimately mean that if the people of God genuinely and authentically LOVE that the world will crash our gates?

I dream this.....

"Too Much of a Good Thing is...WONDERFUL!" Mae West

2009-11-17T12:22:00.000-08:00

“Too Much of a Good Thing is…WONDERFUL!” Mae West
The Radical Power of Love

I have said for many years now that the greatest unused power of the Church is love. Oh yea, I know…our bumper stickers shout the contrary. “Honk if you love Jesus”, “I love you, and God loves you MORE!”, “We Love you at (fill in the blank with your church name)”. I am personally allergic to bumper stickers. I break out in curmudgeon like sounds every time I see one, particularly embarrassing Christian bumper stickers.

I’m sorry…I verbally did what I physically do when driving my car and seeing stupid bumper stickers…veer off the road and head for the ditch.

Leonard Sweet (E. Stanley Jones professor of evangelism at Drew Theological in Madison, New Jersey) said, “If Christianity really wanted to get radical, the first thing it could do would be to stop privileging Western rationalization.” What this means to me is that we must intentionally take a dive in the deep end of the pool of God’s true character.

For instance, the rational Western theologian looks at a scripture passage that says, “Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ” (I Corinthians 11:3) and deduces that men are the only legitimate power brokers in the church. The problem is that rational thought and the radical love of God are quite often incompatible. The radical love of God proclaims that now, in Christ and His obliteration of the letter of the law through His death, burial, resurrection and ascension to the Right Hand of God, there is now neither Jew or Greek, male or female, for we are all one in Christ (Galatians 3:28).

This messes with my head! No pun intended. How can one verse be so permissive of male dominance and the next one explicitly rip that notion right out of my manly hands? It can because now we believers are no longer permitted to be in the lock-down of the law and prophets. Jesus said in Luke 16:16 that John the Baptist was the exclamation point of the law and prophets and now the Kingdom of God, and its radical law of outrageous love is being proclaimed, and everyone is fighting their way into the atmosphere of this new message!

Here’s an instant replay of I Corinthians 11:3 through the rose-colored lens of Love: “Christ is the head of men. He told his believers before He left the earth, ‘you’ll do My works and even greater works than Me’, thus providing that ‘headship’ is love’s empowerment, not the law’s need for external controls. Furthermore, God is the Head of Christ which is easily understood when you know that Christ said, ‘If you’ve seen Me, you’ve seen the Father’, and with that Word Jesus lived out His Father’s love with an obedience born from intimate unity. And man is the head of a woman by being so filled with the Love of God that he is not afraid of her empowerment.”

Love goes where the Law stops.

Ah, this love thing might just catch on! Would you like another example that explodes harsh legalistic religious bigotry? OK….any suggestions? What’s that? You two there, waaaay in the back row….say it loud. Ah yes, politics and lifestyle choices… Well, maybe I shouldn’t….but since you asked, I’ll take a stab at it.

Remember that annoying sermon Jesus preached from a mountain? Matthew heard Jesus say something like this, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.” Here’s something that really juices this up…ready? Jesus literally took an Old Testament scripture, in this case, and tore it to shreds!

The reference is from Deuteronomy 23:3-6. I will spare you the rigid details in this venue, but I would invite you to read for yourself the complete history behind this narrative. Here’s my take; Jesus is saying, “Remember how God told you that you should not seek to bless or support an old political rival with peace and prosperity? Blam…that’s done. Now I want you to pray blessing and prosperity on Republicans, Democrats and Independents all in the same breath! AND do it with your heart completely healed by the irrational reach of real love for your very real enemies. I want people to look at you and honestly wonder what ‘side’ you are on because your love is so completely all encompassing.”

“BUT, if I love people like that they’ll think I’m approving of their lifestyle! If I love like that my Christian friends will think I’m compromising! If I love like that people won’t know what my moral stand is!”

As to “lifestyle” question, Jesus completely loved one group of people so much He was called a “drunk” (Matthew 11:19). As to what my “Christian friends” think, I have found that living to please them is too exhausting and soul draining to matter. And, on the “moral stand” matter, if I am not being perfected in the Love of God, my moral stand is completely irrelevant and without merit. Christianity in 2009 can not afford to be known more for moral convictions than we are known for fanatic love!

There’s a lot of talk in church circles these days about, “world-view”. I have not read it all nor have I had the inclination to do so. What I have seen simply makes me nervous because it takes a squeaky-clean, hard edged approach that our culture and the church is in trouble due to an anemic Biblical “world-view”. Frankly, I think if the church really had a complete revelation of God’s true world view, some church folks might want to have God excommunicated.

The only world view I want is LOVE. God’s value for the world is in direct relationship to the value He holds for His own Son (John 3:16). That love THEN is the same love NOW, for THIS world. Crazy, huh? Yes, it is. But that’s the wonder of love out of heaven’s unlimited bounty. Mae West was right! “Too much of a good thing is WONDERFUL!” Does that make me a friend of Mae? I sure hope so.

2012 is Yet Another Y2K

2009-11-02T14:25:00.000-08:00

I’d like to get a jump on the current end of world fad. For anyone who has the blessing of not being in front of a TV set, or has missed movie previews of late, here’s the scoop…the Mayan Calendar has some kind of end predicted within it that points to December 21, 2012. Actually, some have a tick of the clock attached to this…11:11a.m.

I feel fairly confident to announce that I will likely be here, tapping words into my computer at precisely 11:12a.m. December 21, 2012 and beyond. In fact, I plan to be publishing another book…or writing a blog at that precise moment calling on everyone who profited from this fraud to donate all their ill-gotten gains to local food pantries and homeless shelters. I have experience in this kind of behavior. Allow me a moment to elucidate.

When a herd of noisy Christians were advocating that we should be storing food and water for the coming Y2K cataclysm (late in the year 1999), I was busy being a pastor. I told my flock that if they were storing food when their neighbor might be potentially hungry, repentance was the only option. I told people to empty their cupboards, basements, bomb shelters and every secret storage facility they had and give this bounty to the poor. Most people joined me in my good cheer. A few people quietly disagreed and shook their heads in disdain at my ignorance of prophecy.

Our church actually planned a fireworks display on News Year’s Eve 1999. We thought it was a nice touch to illustrate our disgust for this kind of sadness. When the clock turned 2000 without incident it was as if the world breathed a sigh of relief that yet another thief of hope had been exposed.

I am personally committed to the notion that Christianity must completely separate itself from every thief of hope. One of the most common examples of this is the “end of the world” predictions that make a run at us every so often. I hate it when, at best, too many Christian leaders take a stance sounding like, “Well, no one knows for sure” and, at worst, some high profile hucksters seize the moment for raising funds for their ministries and scaring people into faith or church. Yuck!

Let me recommend some enlightening reading for your spiritual edification: “Surprised by Hope; Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection and the Mission of the Church” by N.T. Wright. “The Rapture Exposed; the Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation” by Barbara Rossing. And, “Victorious Eschatology” by Harold Eberle and Martin Trench.

We have ignored the incalculable damage done to the Name of Christ by this junk for too long. We have allowed ourselves to be guilty by association, at best, and guilty by outright manipulation, at worst. I will not stand by, I will not be silent, I can not let innocent hearts be soiled and I decline to accept the end of man (see William Faulkner’s speech in accepting the Nobel Prize for Literature, 1950). There is a far more soul enriching manner in which to read and enjoy the scriptures than to be force fed with the notion that God is focused on His stop-watch.

For the record, the popular TV preachers, Jack Van Impe and John Hagee are promoting an interpretation of scriptures I find completely and egregiously flawed in this regard. It is based on a school of theology that slices and dices the scriptures in so many directions you can hardly trust any verse to mean what it really says. Note, I am not saying these gentlemen are evil or false prophets….I don’t personally know them. I just know that their interpretation of the Bible requires a catastrophic vision of the future. In my opinion, that interpretation is unacceptably damaging to the character of Christ which is the heart and love of God for the world.

Catastrophic events come and go, but they are, by and large, the result of our sowing and reaping and not God’s sadistic thirst for misery just to “get our attention”. The Bible actually promises the complete healing of all of nature. It speaks of every nation being healed and streaming to the people of God for visionary answers. Scriptures predict that all weapons will one day be converted to agricultural purposes and military academies will no longer be required to train for war. God actually set in motion a momentum for the reversal of the food chain mentality, in humans and the animal kingdom. (Isaiah 11, 60, 61, Micah 4)

I happen to believe that our participation in the scriptures has always been required for any promise of God to be activated. From the salvation of an individual to the salvation of the nations, we are co-laborers with Christ. Our will and consent has always mattered!

So, while I am sure that the Mayans were lovely people and ahead of their time in art and culture, I am equally certain that their calendar is predictive of nothing in particular. Some scholars suggest that the 2012 reference in the Mayan calendar is simply a point at which the dates are a “do-over” and not at all a cataclysm. Unfortunately, that interpretation won’t sell movies or promote a ministry.

RENEWAL...HERE....NOW! Part 2

2009-10-28T09:36:00.000-07:00

I love the prophet Isaiah: the book, yes, but even more so, the man. This dude has a clearer and more distinct revelation of Jesus Christ hundreds of years before Jesus arrives on earth’s shores than those of us who have mountains of written material about Jesus along with 2000 years to read it all!

It underlines for me the necessity of my relationship with the Holy Spirit. Many in Christianity today are happy with the Father, Son and Holy Bible… but only the Holy Spirit can truly reveal the Bible so that we can authentically know the Father and Son. There are visions of God, His beauty, His majesty and His destiny that can only be accessed by the Holy Spirit’s dynamic inside us.

Now, back to Isaiah, and specifically chapter 61. This is the portion of wonder that Jesus pulled out and read in the synagogue as recorded in Luke 4. It absolutely drives a stake in the heart of any stagnant religious behaviors, Old Testament and New Testament! It seems that when Jesus took this scroll and read aloud that He was saying, “RENEWAL….HERE… NOW!” (Read my previous blog "Renewal...here...now")

In fact, Jesus did say, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:21). I’m captivated by the words, “…in your hearing…” because something in these syllables suggests to me that I should hear something more than words. I should hear prophetic destiny being constructed in my body, soul and spirit! It reminds me of Ezekiel being dared to voice life to dead bones! (Ezekiel 37)

I marvel today at the inability of some in the church to see the glory recorded in these Words. It seems to me that some folks are so determined to have God in a particularly nasty mood that they simply can not see Isaiah 61 as true. Or, if they see it as true, it is locked up in the twilight zone they call the millennium. My take on their doctrinal contortions is that they see these Words as too good to be true, so outrageous and so demanding of faith that we simply must push them out away from our responsibility to live in deep end of these treasures.

Open a Bible. Read Isaiah 61. Ignore Scofield’s notes. Listen to the Holy Spirit. I dare you to believe every Word in that chapter as True, NOW.

I dare you to seize the promise of every Word of that chapter as your destiny in life. Don’t limit this chapter to a “Promise Box” approach of all the truly sweet things that Jesus has come to make real in your personal life. I believe those promises….but when I read all 11 verses as my personal prophetic word, I am stunned to find out that His healing in me is for the purpose of wildly astonishing healing through me!

Ruined cities are waiting the arrival of a healing army that has been so amazingly healed, they can not contain the flood of healing out of their abundant virtue. Ruined cities are waiting for the footsteps of Jesus stepping out through our feet the radiance of a transcendent dominance.

Verse four says that generational desolations will yield to our faith! The definition of the word “desolations”is, “stunning, amazing destruction”. This says to me that a greater, more stunning and amazing CON-struction arrives when we believe who and what Jesus has redeemed us to be!

Since Jesus has declared this to be true, I agree with Him! TODAY, in our hearing, in our time….RENEWAL…HERE…NOW!

Only the Mediocre...

2009-10-14T07:48:00.000-07:00

"Only the mediocre are always at their best" -- unknown Texas preacher

"I would rather fail at attempting the miraculous than to succeed at mediocrity" ~me~

LIfe Shrinks or Grows...

2009-10-05T09:17:00.000-07:00

"Life shrinks at the speed of our self limited and self serving cultural choices. This happens when we chose a desired end result ahead of any informed or enlightened process of personal growth. Life can also expand at the speed of enlightened hunger for formation in spite of any casualties to my own opinions." --Pastor Randy Dean--

RENEWAL...HERE....NOW!

2009-09-21T15:48:00.000-07:00

Through the years I have heard stories of God’s exploits and often, these wonderful testimonies are only as great as they are thousands of miles away from where I am. It is enticing to hear reports about great waves of renewal that are happening in other countries. But, these revivals of epic proportion and culture shaping depth seem to only occur far, far away. Recently I heard of a “global” impact being prophesied for an eastern European nation that would ultimately send missionaries to the United States. I think many of you reading this know what I’m talking about.

I am totally excited about these truthful and genuinely epic moves of the Holy Spirit. I have no doubt of the veracity of the reporters or the prophets who call these things out. “IT” is happening. I have seen “IT” with my own eyes in Mexico, the Ukraine and Russia.

Where I begin to have pause is when I hear of deeply sincere and completely well-meaning believers from the States talking about going to these far away places to experience and enhance all of the above beauties with even the slightest implication that “IT” can not happen here. Too often, these sincere believers are coming from churches and localities in great need for “IT” to be true in the place where the soles of their feet tread everyday. I’ve blessed some to “go” when inside I am weeping for them to stay and light a fire, right HERE.

I hasten to say that I would never suggest that we shouldn’t go to other nations. I have gone and I will continue to go. I CERTAINLY BLESS THOSE WHO SACRIFICE TO "GO"!That being said, however, I have come home numerous times smoldering, internally roaring and fiercely determined for MY nation and MY church and MY region to experience renewal…NOW!

To go anywhere far from where you live JUST to experience the singular enormous pleasure of the Kingdom pulsating on earth as it is in heaven, is to VISIT renewal like it is a spiritual Disney Land….all the while missing the greater possibility of living IN an ongoing state of renewal right HERE, right NOW.

Hear me carefully…

Renewal is NOT being withheld from America because of our sin. “…where sin abounded, grace abounded much more…” (Romans 5:20). Isaiah 60 pounds into the air a command to anyone living anywhere in darkness, “ARISE, SHINE; your light has come!” I don’t have the time or space to elucidate the rest of that passage and its clear commanding tone for us to BE a revival ANYWHERE, ANYTIME renewal is needed.

There is NOT an elusive “to do” list that must be completed before God is somehow convinced to get past His Holy hesitation to light the night sky of the U.S.A. The results of revivals of our history should never be seen as prerequisite for us to GET a nation-wide renewal! The truest of all awakenings occur simply because people decide to end their satisfaction of the spiritual status quo.

Here’s another thought on the matter; “What American Christians need is good old fashioned persecution…that’s the only way we’ll ever be revived!”

I respectfully and vociferously disagree. Persecution is not greater and more powerful than God! Now, I know that persecution has worked for groups and nations in the past, but that doesn’t make it the only formula!

In fact, if it was the only formula then God would have said about Israel going in to the promised land, “Behold, I am taking you to the most awful place on earth! It is a land flowing with rats and pestilence. There’s not a dwelling, a hut, a cave or place of shelter anywhere! You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country. NOW THAT will make you serve Me and keep you convinced to stay in line and cling to Me!”

NO! God promised them a land flowing with outrageous goodness, free homes and extreme abundance (Read Dueteronomy 28 – 30)! I believe that God is looking for a generation of people who will enter into His best IN THE MIDST OF incredible days of ease and comfort! Why? Because we aren’t running away from some kind of trouble and woe to be rescued, but we are leaping into His Arms in genuine desire for Him AND HIM ALONE!

Through my years of pastoral ministry I’ve witnessed time and time again when someone comes to Jesus out of misery or trouble only to “fall away” when everything worked out. It’s called “jailhouse religion”. It’s shallow and short-term. God is looking for long term worshippers whose passion is to serve Him all the days of their lives and pass their passion on to the next generation for a doubling of that passion. My ceiling is to be their floor!!

Again, and for the record, I know that persecution moved the early church out of Jerusalem and into all the world when they were otherwise inclined to keep it all at home. But that was not God’s best for them…it was plan B.

Plan A was, “…you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” Not a single mention of, “and when you’ve resisted too long and been sufficiently disobedient, persecution will ship you out!” God’s original desire was to overwhelm them with such power and revelation of who He was and who they were so that they could not HELP but to explode everywhere and at all times.

The time and place for Kingdom Come is right here where the soles of my feet stand. The time and place for renewal, revival, awakening and quite frankly I don’t care what you call “IT”….that time and place is NOW!

I am on the planet sucking air so that my life will be the tipping bean of a grand and glorious plethora of spiritual goodness in this land of the living. In America, lives are being majestically renovated and regally renewed! In America, miracles are happening at a dizzying pace through the lives of ordinary “little people” who are lit up like permanent fireworks tattooed on an inky black sky. In America, Jesus is being wonderfully seen and famously heralded as the King Who IS on His Throne….

Oh, land that I love, Come see the glory of God, HERE, NOW in tiny hamlet in western Wisconsin. The township of Forest is on fire with HIM because we stopped waiting for revival, praying for revival and simply started BEING a revival of Kingdom Come!

School Prayer

2009-09-01T10:03:00.000-07:00

Not long ago I saw one of those yellow portable signs in front of a business that implored, “Put God Back in School”. As I drove past this I wondered out loud (I was alone), “Is God short a few credits? Did He drop out? Who was big and bad enough to kick Him out? Is this business suggesting that God needs a better education?” Worthy questions, I thought.

Of course, the signage had nothing to do with those questions. It is one of those tired old protests suggesting that God has been helplessly removed from public schools in America and we must be called to action to put Him and prayers to Him back in school.

I have good news...God never left public schools. I take Him there every time I chair a board of education meeting. I know thousands of students who pray in public schools every day. I know teachers who are speaking “Kingdom Come” on public schools all over the nation. I know administrators who are boldly walking school hallways and touching students with their faith every day the doors open.

Do you think that maybe we should pray FOR schools more than we debate and protest over having prayer IN schools? Is it possible that we’ve been distracted FROM prayer by a silly political dispute ABOUT prayer?

Join me in leaving the “Put God back in school” argument to people who just enjoy fighting. From this day forward, every time you drive past a school pray this, “Thy Kingdom COME, Thy will be done in that school just as it is in heaven”. Or put the Aaronic Blessing on every school bus you see; “The Lord BLESS those students and staff. The Lord KEEP them and make His face shine on them!” The original word for keep drew the picture of an ancient shepherd building a portable coral for his sheep made of thorny bushes. The idea was to keep predators from getting too close to these precious lambs.

Picture this; a typical classroom is filling with students on their first day back from summer vacation. The teacher welcomes them and starts a roll call; “John? Here. Sue? Here. Mary? Here. Fred? Here……uhmm….God?” And over half the class room thunders back, “HERE!”

Moral Inventory

2009-08-25T12:35:00.000-07:00

Before I dive into this blog, let me lay down three defining principles that will help keep me and you on track:
1. I am using Alcoholics Anonymous’ Fourth Step as the platform for these thoughts. I’ve heard it said that A.A. needs the church, but the church equally needs A.A.
2. Unhealthy introspection leads to nothing…and I mean nothing! If I was the devil (and I’m not) I would have Christians preoccupied with deep and obsessive internal reviews to keep them feeling religiously active and spiritually neutered.
3. Too many people love to use the word, “morals” as long as they can emphasize their favorite ones to the exclusion of a wide variety of other, equally valuable morals. For instance, Romans chapter one lists homosexuality along with other deeds of the flesh such as slander, gossip and being unloving and unmerciful. Once you quote a list like this you surrender the right to pick and choose…its all or nothing.

Other than for taxes or financial reports, when a store conducts an inventory it is quite often for the purpose of simply knowing what sells. They are productively looking for the means of how to serve a larger customer base. When a grocery store notices that sugar coated “Sticks and Stones Cereal” has been sitting on their shelves for months while “Wilbur’s Wonder Cereal” is flying off the shelves, they act precipitously to stock what is selling and lose the dead weight inventory if they want to grow and keep their customers well served.

Galatians 5:19-26 offers a superb grid for a healthy moral inventory and the clarity of defining two value systems: “The deeds of the flesh are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and “things like these…” On the other hand, “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

Allow me to play a couple of scenarios for you. Let’s say one of my church members comes to me today, stumbling drunk, and says to me, “I got drunk because the Obama administration is taking this country into a socialist state.” I will rise from behind my desk, walk over to them and say, “You are drunk because you are living out of the wrong value system. You are living in the flesh and outside pressures have exposed your erroneous priorities”.

Now imagine another member walks in my office, red in the face with anger, and they say, “I just came back from a town hall meeting and I am just so angry because the Obama Administration is taking this country into a socialist state.” Once again, I would rise from behind my desk, walk over to this church member and say, “You are angry because you are living out of the wrong value system. You are living in the flesh and outside pressures have exposed your erroneous priorities”.

Angry outbursts are no more or less acceptable than drunkenness! They both bear witness to our internal realities. When our internal realities are only within the scope of our own abilities, measured by our human reasoning and marginalized by fear, the “deeds of the flesh” WILL NOT BE FAR BEHIND.

Verse 21 of this chapter says, “…those who practice such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God.” When our life is lived within the anemic framework of our own resources unplugged from Heaven’s Resources, we will miss seeing the transcendent supremacy of the Kingdom of God happening before our very eyes! The only thing we inherit is our frail limitation.

God is offering us a far, far greater bounty. When our internal reality is steeping in the River of the Holy Spirit’s unlimited power, out of us will rush, “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law”.

And when we live this way, we will SEE the Kingdom of God trumping all inferior realities around us. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality”. Conversely, this means that when we amputate truth from the soil of the Holy Spirit, it has the same outcome as compromising the same truth we say we hold dear.

After his home was fire-bombed Pastor King (I love remembering that this hero was just simple pastor) was taunted and admonished to join the radical militants of the civil rights movement. In response, he called the media to his front yard, stood on his charred and badly damaged front porch and proclaimed forgiveness to the perpetrators of that crime. He refused to allow his internal realities to degenerate into the obtuse limitations of the flesh. Instead he chose the unlimited power of the Spirit and His resplendent fruit.

My brothers and sisters, we are in a similar time, though in vastly different political dynamics. When we are wronged, politically or in any other way, we have a choice to transcend or descend. If we truly believe that the Kingdom of God will ultimately triumph over all inferior challengers, then we will live TODAY by seeding the world with the Kingdom’s Fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Firebrand School of Ministry; Year 2!

2009-08-20T13:44:00.000-07:00

Last summer I took complete leave of my mind and ordinary thinking and obeyed God in starting Firebrand School of Ministry. Now, with the first year nearly completed I am ecstatic that God gave us this opportunity.

At 11 p.m. last night, after a full day that started at 7 a.m. I was discussing the new second year about to begin September 14th with my daughter Libby and my son-in-law Darren. Darren is taking on an additional teaching load and Libby is starting a new class as an additional instructor (all of our instructors are volunteer at this point). We were brain-storming and agonizing just a bit over some of the preparations for the new year when Darren said, “Can you even imagine our church now without Firebrand and the interns?” We all laughed and remarked that there is no way to fathom being who we are as a church without the presence of Firebrand and our student-interns!

Current western Christian culture is at risk due, in part, to two anemic fixations:
1.“going to heaven” and a related “end times” fatalism
2. Berating and bemoaning the darkness and wickedness of our day

Firebrand School was born to impart a Kingdom Culture in the heart and mind of the church. We intend to raise up a generation of believers who have received a new baptism in fire through the Holy Spirit from the very Hands of Jesus. Our mission is to equip and deploy full time ministers, whose core value is, “on earth, as it is in heaven” into the full spectrum of life; artists, teachers, politicians, entrepreneurs, inventors, home-makers, church workers and servants of every description. Revival will result from their faith as they set out in an authentic passion to change the world through the communication and demonstration of the Kingdom of God. Here’s a thought, “Darkness leaves when light shines”.

While I am typing these words our students are on the streets in a class called, “Treasure Hunt”. Pastor Darren takes the school out at least once a week to serve a variety of towns and cities around us with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Before the school leaves the church they pray for “clues” to find the treasure in the hearts of people they have never met. They compile a treasure map (red scarf, grocery store, limping person, etc) and head out on a Kingdom adventure.

Simply put the students are being trained to serve in unconditional love and power. No witness pamphlets, no threats of “going to hell”, no arm twisting to come to our church and zero pressure to “get saved”. Just love people through the heart and eyes of the Holy Spirit. They have prayed for dozens of people at malls, parks, stores and other public venues with incredible results. As an example, imagine in your mind’s eye Darren along with his students standing in the middle of a grocery store aisle, holding a sobbing grandmother who is overcome with gratitude for a simple prayer of comfort.

Joining me as teachers in our school are these marvelous people;
*Pastor Steve Olson – Founder and Director of Impact Ministries (a live-in treatment center for chemical dependency). Steve has a degree in Chemical Dependency Counseling and an amazing testimony of life out of a spiritual grave.
*Pastor Gene Morfitt – A former senior pastor with a MBA and a variety of graduate studies from places like the University of Minnesota and Bethel University. Gene and his family run a retreat ministry that has literally touched families from all over the world.
*Libby Hose – My daughter and our church worship director and women’s ministry leader. Libby has a PhD in life and living! Her powerful and anointed leadership in worship has lifted our church to an entirely new dimension of the Kingdom of God.
*Pastor Darren Hose – Darren has been a youth pastor for 14 years. He has studied at Northwestern College and the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay. Currently he is finishing a B.A. in education. Pastor Darren leads our missions outreach at LWC as well and is powerfully gifted as a prophet.

Classes include such topics as; Creating a Kingdom Culture, Worship and Work Ethic, Creating a Prophetic Culture, Culture of Honor and Spiritual Authority, Supernatural Lifestyle, Supernatural Mental Health and many other Kingdom of God inspired topics.
Our second year begins September 14th. Registration is due by September 1st. Applications are available on-line at our church web-site; www.LWC1.com. Go the FBSM link for further information.

Our school isn’t for everybody…but it is for giant-killers, world changers, miracle minded servants and passionate lovers of God. Is that you?

Naked People

2009-08-12T08:13:00.000-07:00

Add one naked person to any crowd, anywhere and you’ve got instant awareness; “Hey! There’s a naked person!” Beautiful, ugly, young, old, male, female…naked will turn heads on a swivel. Depending on multiple factors, heads will spin toward, away, up, down and quite possibly some necks will suffer severe sprain.

Five years ago my wife and I spent a few weeks in Jamaica. We found a quiet beach with no kids and no noise which was no small feat. We were pretty impressed with ourselves…until we discovered that it was a clothing optional area. “Ginger! Look at that lady over there!” To which Ginger said, “Randy! Look at me…NOW!” The rest of that story is that we used that section of the beach quite often for the peace it afforded. Our swim suits stayed ON. And yes, I behaved…most of the time.

There was a time in the human experience when it did not matter. There was a time, long, long ago when being naked didn’t even merit a comment. No heads swiveled. God made it that way. Adam and Eve had absolutely no consciousness of their condition. “Naked and unashamed” is the exact descriptor of that state.

This is not going to be some weird nudist admonition. OK? Now, tune in.

The original word for ashamed meant, “not confused or in any way slowed down”. IT DID NOT MATTER! IT HAD NO BEARING ON HOW THEY LIVED THEIR LIVES. Eve didn’t have an eating disorder born out of some disgusting demand on her life to have a certain “look”. Adam was not driven by a broken and unbridled “need” to impress Eve. Body image had no bearing on personal definitions.

What would our lives be like if no external factor mattered, at any level? What source would nourish our value systems, our assessments and our judgments if we were unregulated by the dominance of sensory perceptions?

Does this have anything to do with Jesus commandment, “Do not judge lest you be judged” (Matthew 7:1)? I am convinced that it does. I am convinced that the arrival of the Kingdom of God through the ministry of Jesus Christ has re-introduced a climate for freedom beyond our normal imaginations.

The Presence of God was once the glory (weightiness) that made nakedness irrelevant. Now the Presence of God can be a glory (weightiness) that offers a completely new platform for our self-awareness and security.

Let me come at this in another way. God would like to complete us in ways we ordinarily assign to our appearance. This doesn’t mean that I stop shaving, brushing my teeth and combing my hair. It means that when people meet me that they can be immediately and convincingly aware of that God is with me.

More than my power tie, more than my designer suit, more than how much I weigh, more than my complexion, more than my hygiene; there is SomeOne ON me.

God is with me and His Presence in my life makes heads swivel. This is my goal in life and I will live in THAT power suit all the days of my life.

Change

2009-07-22T09:11:00.000-07:00

"You can not change your heart and God will not change your mind. But, if you will change your mind, God will change your heart."

Unknown

Political Power

2009-07-20T14:32:00.000-07:00

"It has never been about the size or volume of our political views...it has always been about the height, depth, width and sweeping scope of our hearts in love with HIM. The world will not read our protest signs because we've shown them little, if any, sign of the Presence of God profoundly, WITH US. (Zechariah 8:23)"

Pastor Randy Dean

Destiny

2009-07-20T14:30:00.000-07:00

"If we will learn to welcome God's Presence into our lives in a revelation of Who He always was, we will finally become the people we were always destined to be!"

Pastor Randy Dean

Momentum

2009-07-14T11:52:00.000-07:00

"I am determined to live a courageous covenant of honest and transparent hunger for revelation that truly feeds people into a momentum of positive and powerful action."

Pastor Randy Dean

Psychedelic Jesus

2009-07-06T15:01:00.000-07:00

I’m currently immersed in a series of messages I have affectionately titled, “Psychedelic Jesus”. I am a child of the ‘60’s. I still love the music and the memories (although someone once said that if you can remember the ‘60’s you weren’t there). I believe Janis Joplin was born to lead worship and simply couldn’t find a church door open to her or an authentic Christian near enough to pull her into her destiny.

My generation coined the word “psychedelic” and it that defined a large chunk of our search for meaning. I have found a definition from a medical research point of view that strikes at why I like this word; “Commonly known for perceptions of aspects of one’s mind previously unknown, or by the creative exuberance of the mind liberated from ordinary fetters”.

Last week I blogged the quote of President Eisenhower, “…without the yeast of pioneers every human endeavor eventually degenerates into a worship of the status quo”… I’ve gone from “IKE” to “PSYCH” in one week and both terms mean the same thing.

In Ephesians the Apostle Paul calls for us to have “the eyes of (our) heart” enlightened. It’s the only way to ever come to any productive adventure in this life we call Christian. Simply stated I’ve found that far too much of western Christianity has sanitized the faith down to a roll call of good boys and girls when it ought to be a dare to ride the wild side and “kiss the sky”!

Where would John be invited to preach after publically stating that he was, “in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day and I heard behind me a loud voice…”? Where would Isaiah hold his next great crusade or festival after walking around naked for three years as an illustration of how arrogance will bring you to shame? Would your church ask David to lead worship after his wardrobe malfunction? Has anyone noticed that Moses was a fugitive murderer who came down from a mountain of thunder and lightening with the commandment, “Thou shalt not kill”?

I want to propose to you that an enormous plot of spiritual real estate is waiting for our discovery! I am personally in a full pursuit of the creative exuberance of the mind liberated from ordinary fetters! I think the children of the ‘60’s had it right when they longed for a psychedelic experience but they had it wrong to think it was only available through dropping acid. I think Jesus was the Original Psychedelic and He beckons any eager pilgrim to climb a Mount of Transfiguration that they might become significant vessels of Transfiguration for the World HE SO LOVED!

I love Job 26:14, “Behold, these are the fringes of His ways; how faint a word we hear of Him! But His mighty thunder, who can understand?” Whole communities of faith are camped out on the “fringes of His ways…” and piously nod at every “faint a word”. Like Israel responding to the thunder and lightening on the mountain, we have accepted a suburban view.

I’m sick of the spiritual suburbs! Take me to the Inner City! Revelation 10 says that Seven Thunders have spoken and someone is destined to understand and LIVE what they’ve said. “EXCUSE ME, WHILE I KISS THE SKY” (Jimi Hendrix from the song, “Purple Haze”)

The Yeast of Pioneers

2009-06-30T11:50:00.000-07:00

Recently, my wife and I enjoyed a trip to West Point Military Acadamy where we joined the graduation celebration of one of our church’s young men. A year ago, when he invited us to be two of his ten available “tickets”, we were stunned. Having been there, now we are overwhelmingly stunned and honored.

The commencement speaker was Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates. The full text of his speech is available on-line, and it is saved in my laptop…it was powerful. For my purposes here, I won’t go into much detail (it may become a class in our school of ministry, however!). I simply want to use a quote he used from President and General, Dwight Eisenhower; “Without the yeast of pioneers, the United States Army, or any other organization of men” – and today we would add women – “cannot escape degeneration into a ritualistic worship of the status quo.”

The church of America is in desperate need of “the yeast of pioneers”. Far too many of our practices and culture have been allowed a, “degeneration into a ritualistic worship of the status quo”. Status quo is most often welcomed and embraced when pain meets progress.

The spiritual pioneers we need today will have to speak and teach things that will invite the use of the H word….heresy. I’m not suggesting a sloppy foray into pop-theology or a reckless and lazy attack dog style of preaching. I’m talking about a courageous covenant of honest and transparent hunger for revelation that truly feeds people into a momentum of positive and powerful action.

I won’t take too much time here to tell you (again!) how I believe that most “end-times” popular theology has unplugged the passion and soul of far too much of western Christianity. A casual review of my blog site will do plenty of that. But I do need to relate it to the need for “the yeast of pioneers”. Here’s what I mean…
An enormous chunk of the Evangelical/Holy Spirit Renewal Church is either promoting the catastrophic, rapture end-times at worst, or at best, they are “letting a sleeping dog lay”. If this dog was sleeping, I’d leave it alone too. But the problem is, this dog bites and it is blockading an entry into the Kingdom of God. Simply put, when you believe that everything just gets blown up in the end, you will be minimally motivated to be a person of faith who believes for the healing of the nations.

The yeast of THIS pioneer believes for the leavening of the Bread of Life in Micah 4:1-7, “It will come about in the last days that the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains. It will be raised above the hills, and the peoples will stream to it….they will hammer their swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks: Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they train for war.”

Crazy stuff, huh? The church will have such influence, such power, such intrinsic Spirit value that our salt and light ends human conflict. But you know what? This isn’t as crazy as wolves and bears grazing with sheep and cows. Or lions eating straw, or infants playing by cobra and viper’s holes. Oh, it’s all in the Book (Isaiah 11) waiting for yeasty pioneers to believe that we truly are people of significance and that God has placed an enormous value in the sacrifice of His Son for the healing of the nations!

Some worshippers of the status quo will tell you that no such dreams are allowed for us mere mortals. They will be quick to note that Jesus must come again to finish these deeds. The problem with worshipping the status quo is that you will always become what you worship. I’ve always said that Satan doesn’t care what you believe about yesterday or the far flung future…he only cares when somebody pulls the scroll off a dusty shelf, reads the passage and says, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing!” (Luke 4:21)

That is why I’ve come to tell you is that only dreamers dare pray, “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. Only dreamers look beyond wooden theology and reach for signs that will make the world wonder. Only dreamers think of every page of the Bible as a dare from God to live TODAY! Only dreamers have their gaze on Jesus walking on the water and shout to Him, “LET ME COME TO YOU AND JOIN YOUR SUPERNATURAL STROLL!!”

C’mon yeast……let’s do our job!

Randy Dean Ministries

2009-04-30T14:26:00.000-07:00

April 27, 2009
“The Kingdom of God does not consist in words, but in power”. (I Corinthians 4:20). This is the passion of my life; the radiant outworking of the reality of Heaven’s Domain….the Kingdom of God hits earth with the factual, tangible influence of renewal!

The past several months of my life have been packed with this kind of Kingdom pressure. Dreams are coming true which in turn inspire visions yet to be fulfilled. Since last May:
• We started a school of ministry with 7 student interns.
• I finished the rough draft of my first book, “Radiance; the Transcendent Nature of the Kingdom of God”.
• Ginger and I were called by God to move our ordination to the apostolic covering associated with Bethel Church Redding, California and Bill Johnson. Ginger is now officially, “Pastor Mom”- a title she adores.
• Our church, Living Word Chapel, has caught a momentum of the Spirit that is beyond words or easy definitions. Our services are an adventure, but that is only the opening line of the story.
• Ministries under us for covering and care are growing in both depth and width. I am so proud of my spiritual sons and daughters.

Three years ago, when I started Randy Dean Ministries, I knew that God was putting me on track to form a vehicle to carry the work He was ramping up at that time. I am now seeing that picture more fully. The more I minister here at home and the more I travel to other places, I am more and more convinced that a historic renewal has fallen upon the United States and the world.

Contrary to the gloomy prognostications of some folk trapped in end times hysteria, I say we are under the influence of the open windows in heaven. The only “sign” that is worth our attention is The Sign of the Kingdom; “heal the sick and say, ‘the Kingdom of God has come near to you’”. The transcendent supremacy of God’s incredible sphere of influence is healing any and all interested parties.

Now, more than ever in my life, I have a profound sense of my calling and the epic season in which I am alive. Some quiver, some coast, some make silly cynical prophesies about the end and others are just M.I.A. But I have never felt so alive and eager to serve my King. I was born for such a time as this.

I am posting this letter as a means of enlisting your covenant of prayer and support. Everything R.D.M. is doing has been largely self-supporting. No complaints, however, I simply want to expand my reach:
• My book, whether self-published or otherwise, will be a costly enterprise. I believe this book will be a contribution to a tipping point for a much needed reformation of the church in America.
• Our school is currently taught and administrated by 6 volunteers. I am daily stunned as I watch the level of labor and love that is being freely invested in this adventure. This first year of Firebrand School of Ministry has far exceeded my wildest expectations. I can hardly wait to see what the next school year holds! We need more underwriting for books, materials and staff reimbursement.
• The outside ministry I am invited to participate in is, for the most part, self-sufficient but, needs to grow and evolve in a variety of ways. It has been an amazing honor to be invited to minister in diverse venues, both small and great. However, in order to freely accept more invitations I need a stronger financial base for R.D.M.
• My blog continues to be a site visited by friends and foes alike. I want to enhance and expand the blog for an ever growing audience. (If you are reading this on the internet you already know how to find me. If not, go to www.randydeanministries.blogspot.com

Help me get the Word out that God is satisfied (Isaiah 53:11) and feeling good about Himself. Humanity need no longer cower for fear of random acts of violence and pestilence from the Hand of God. When evil strikes, God is at the ready to overcome evil with His massive good. The Kingdom of God is AT YOUR HAND!

Your financial support would be joyfully received and jubilantly put to work! Our mailing address is 2694 200th Ave Emerald, WI 54013. Checks can be made out to Randy Dean Ministries and are tax deductible. In advance of your prayers and support, I thank you all.

Our God Reigns,

Pastor Randy Dean

Here's a News Flash: President Obama is Not the Anti-Christ

2009-04-20T09:35:00.001-07:00

One of the few perks of flying these days is the off-hand chance that you can score a seat in the exit row. This means that there is a good chance that you will have feeling in your legs and feet by flight’s end. I scored just such a blessing a couple of weeks ago. An added touch was that my 2 row partners were 16 year old twin sisters whose combined size and weight were smaller than me. Ahhhhh….I immediately planned a nap.

The Holy Spirit had other plans. He downloaded a wide variety of insight to the treasure of the hearts of these two young ladies. I know better than to pretend to be asleep when the Spirit has other plans. But before I could start a conversation, the girls introduced themselves to me and a two hour verbal flurry began.

Everything I had heard the Spirit speak in my heart, these twins told me on their own…thus eliminating any opportunity on my part to catch their attention with any revealed information. So I listened to their stories, which were very interesting. They were traveling to Europe, had deep interests in art, music, photography, poetry and had aspirations to star in Broadway productions. “So, Mr. Dean….what do you do?”

I’ve answered that question thousands of times over the past 35 years. The answer will either propel the conversation forward or kill it dead. For a few years in my 30’s I tried answering that by dodging it all together. Until one day at a high school when a group of students started to think I was a “narc” (an undercover drug cop). Anyway, back to the flight….

I told them that I was a pastor and that I was on my way to Mexico to lead a pastor’s conference. Both of these teens immediately looked puzzled. “What do you teach?” one asked. “Christianity ”, I answered. “Oh…so you believe that Obama is the Anti-Christ?” Note: this was their first and immediate reflection of what it means to be a Christian in 2009.

The remainder of that exchange was dominated by my apology to them for the loud failure of high profile teachers in the church who routinely mangle scriptures and the character of God to fit their prejudices and cynicism. I told them that the Jesus I know is in a far better mood than that.

These young ladies confided to me that they were a mixture of Buddhism and atheism. Some might wonder if I took the time to lead them into the “Four Spiritual Laws” or if I asked them to pray the sinner’s prayer or if I warned them about hell. I did none of that. My witness to them was one of repentance on behalf of the Body of Christ for whatever it is we’ve done to give two very intelligent and gifted teenagers the distinct impression that Christians everywhere believe that our president is the Anti-Christ.

What I did “win” in that flight was two new friends. I even had the chance to be a comforting grandfather figure when the air got choppy! I told them, “God isn’t finished with me and that makes this a safe airplane!” When we landed the twin nearest me asked, “Can I give you a hug?”

Please read my previous blog entries about ending the end-times hysteria. Go to www.ibethel.org and order Kris Vallotton’s message, “Apostolic Eschatology”. Read “Paradise Restored” by David Chilton. What ever you do, please keep fresh air flowing through your heart and mind. Let’s RE-present Jesus to world, all over again.

For too long there has been a perverted pleasure for some in the church over the real or perceived bad news of our times. Do you know why? Because it takes no effort and no faith to predict bad things and, you can come off as looking spiritually profound when you point out all the bad things as being a fulfillment of your astonishing insight. Remember Jed Clampett of the Beverly Hillbillies? I loved his summation of ignorant people, “Pity-full….just pity-full…”

The narrative of I John 2:1824 describes the antichrist. Interestingly, part of the greek definition for “anti” is to be a contrast. THE Christ went about “doing good and healing all” (Acts 10:38). You see, “doing good and healing all” is hard work. It requires a massive challenge to your faith value system. It demands action in the face of any and all bad news.

The contrast to “doing good and healing all” is doing nothing. Nothing, that is, except to chalk up the bad news to being a “sign of the times”. I John says that “many antichrists have arisen” and that, “they went out from us”. I hope you are following me at this point.

The contrast to THE Christ who went about, “doing good and healing all” are those who go out “from us” doing nothing and healing none. Hmmm…

Thirty some odd years ago, when it was popular in Christian circles to hate Henry Kissinger, he was the anti-christ. The numerology of his name even confirmed it. Now, in some Christian circles, it is popular to hate President Obama. I’m sure the numerology will be distorted to underline the ignorance. That’s just pity-full.

I did not vote for Barack Obama, but I like him, nevertheless. I despise his pro-choice practices, but I love his pro-active mentality. His philosophy of governing is different than my own but the fact that I can put my disagreement in print makes me proud to be a citizen of the United States. I am honored to be alive with the first African American in the White House and I honor him for the guts and the grit it took to get there.

If honoring him puts me at odds with a noisy segment of the church, I will happily accept their disdain. It’s time for the courageous among us to admit that most end-times teaching has done nothing but embarrass us over the past century. Once again, it has raised its ugly head and the Name of Christ is suffering abuse due to our neglect. Half measures to silence this nonsense will avail us nothing.

Its time to own it and apologize for it, and then, move onward and upward toward, “doing good and healing all”….that’s the fruit of THE Christ.

Emotional Recession

2009-04-15T14:01:00.000-07:00

Have you noticed how many economists use emotional words to describe the current state of our economy? Investors are worried, families are fearful, businesses are anxious, banks are uneasy, the stock market is troubled and the nation is distressed. We even call one of the worst periods of our economic history, “The Great Depression”.

It seems to me that FDR’s rally cry in the midst of that period of history still holds true; “The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself”. I’ve learned in my 56 years of life that I can get by without an income, but I can’t live without hope and courage.

My mother and father spent most of 1959 in a hospital. As a result, our family lost everything. House, car, furniture, business….everything but the clothes on our backs. We moved from a home we owned into a $90 a month apartment on the north side of Milwaukee. We furnished that tiny place with used chairs and tables. I slept on an army cot. My mother had a nervous breakdown.

But, the one thing I remember hating, more than anything else, was the palpable fear that things were just going to get worse. I didn’t mind the government issued “Surplus Food”…in fact, I loved the peanut butter. I didn’t mind the small apartment. The old building it was in provided me with hours of entertainment, hiding places and a make-shift pretend fortress in the attic. I didn’t even care that I slept on a used army cot! I could go to sleep at night pretending to be the hero of a thousand battles.

What I despised was that dreaded misery of fear that ultimately lead to my mother’s nervous breakdown. As a little boy, I did everything I could to avoid that feeling, because I instinctively knew that “fear itself” was the real enemy stalking my family.

The most often repeated commandment of the Bible is, “Fear not!”. The will of God for every living creature is to live free of fear. The Bible even predicts the day when, “…the wolf will dwell with the lamb…” (Isaiah 11:6) because God’s intention is for His creation to be fear free!

We will prevail through this economic downturn when we embrace 2 simple words from God; FEAR NOT.

(Read the previous post before proceeding to this one!)

2009-03-12T15:41:00.000-07:00

This is Part 2 from my last blog; "Unlimitied Abundant Life; A Proclamation of Freedom from the End Times Marginalization of the Finished Work of Jesus Christ"

My “word-y” title says so much of my heart and passion as a Christian and a pastor. While we are being offered unlimited abundant life as God’s Kingdom family, we don’t have time to waste on even the most subtle marginalizing of Christ’s finished redemption. “End times” fantasies (a.k.a. dispensational theology) are among the most prevalent and virulent culprits of limiting faith and vision.

This school of thought has fostered a perverse delight that is gift wrapped with the bad news of our world. When terrorists attack, or hurricanes and earthquakes strike, or the economy is sinking, or the “wrong” political party wins an election promoters of this fixation are quick to note how these are “signs of the times”, and “if you think that was bad, you ain’t seen nothing yet!”

This cynical vision seizes every season of pain, misery and perceived political “wrongs” on the world scene as an opportunity for proof-texting their prophesies and ramping up the possibility of, “the worst is yet to come”. If you have the stomach for it, randomly tune in to Christian television programming to sample this neurotic fixation, especially right now with the world wide economy suffering as it is. The conspiracy theorists are having a field day, and, I’m sorry to say, they are doing it in the Name of Jesus.

I have stood by and watched this cycle too many times in my 55 years of life and 36 years of being a pastor. It has been successful at derailing far too many people who are otherwise good hearted. I can not respond with silence, nor will I, on the other hand, become only a reactionary, obsessed with fighting error. I will simply and with as much anointed clarity as I know to seize, speak the Word that has been burning in me for the past 25 years.

Through good times and bad, war and peace, the Middle-east not withstanding, Democratic power or Republican bluster, my message is this, “Everything is fulfilled, the Transcendent Supremacy of God’s Kingdom is at your hand! Change your mind! Arrange your life around the Kingdom’s Dominating influence!”

I would rather risk the enormity of Kingdom faith than a lazy slide on the grease of a gravity fed decline. As 17th century English author and poet John Milton said, “By winning words to conquer willing hearts, and make persuasion do the work of fear.”

“…make persuasion do the work of fear…” is a mighty tall order. Fear is an easy work. You’ll get immediate results, especially when a spirit of fear is already in the air. Have you ever been to a “haunted house” in the dark? With absolutely no effort, the suggestion that “something” is about to happen creates the stage and tension. Just add a sudden “boo!” from an unseen corner….viola….results! This is the recipe of most end times formulas.

If you haven’t already noticed, my approach to this subject is not largely based on the categories of doctrinal labels; pre-millennial, post-millennial, a-millennial. I will recommend some excellent books at the conclusion of this blog by some folks who can do a far better job of explaining these designations than I can. My gift as a pastor/teacher/apostle is to feed the sheep with as much wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ as I can. This is my work of “persuasion”. So here’s another shot at some revealed persuasion…

All truth must ultimately find its revealed nature and character in the Face of Jesus Christ. HE is the only reliable translation of the Word, because HE is the Word. This means we must have a Life with HIM before we can have any reliable teaching about Him.

For example, all too often when end times teachers quote Jesus’ Words from Matthew 24:29, 30 they are unwittingly quoting the sheer opposite of what they intend. “But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken, and then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.”

The sun, moon and stars for the Jewish mind-set that Jesus was speaking to at that time representing the family of Israel and its religious roots. When a young lad named Joseph (Genesis 37) related his dream about the sun, moon and the stars bowing to him his family immediately knew he was talking about them. This family is the root system of Israel.

So, in Matthew 24 Jesus is talking about the end of the world for the people of the Old Testament covenant and the beginning of the New Testament world of the rule and reign of Christ in the Heavenlies! He is prophesying the soon coming day of His Kingdom established in Heaven among the cloud of witnesses, which in turn, begins the destiny of an ever increasing Coming of the Kingdom through the New Jerusalem, the Church (Hebrews 12:22-24).

Now, there is no Jew or Gentile, for we are all ONE in Christ! (The Books of Galatians and Ephesians). Indeed now, “he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter…” (Romans 2:28,29) WE are now the truly circumcised, who worship in the Spirit and relish in Christ Jesus with no confidence in mere religious practice (Philippians 3:1-3).

Once I have a full revelation of Who Jesus is and He takes up a living residence in me I am raptured into a heavenly delight of being, once and for all, a member of a new generation and race of people put on this earth for the healing of the nations! There is no plan B. There are no conspiracies that will last for long. Christ Jesus IS reigning and ruling in the Heavens and His Kingdom is hard-wired for a final and ultimate healing domination.

When I am a covenant partner to that, I have a dream and a destiny written in my DNA that is driving my lifestyle and priorities toward that end.

Here is a teaser quote from my soon to be released book, “Radiance; the Transcendent Nature of the Kingdom of God”; “We cannot journey into any significant portion of the Father’s nature until and unless we pass through Jesus. Go through Him and God’s character becomes an open book. Step around Him and hundreds of passages in the Bible look like mysterious spooky eyes leering at you from a dark forest on a scary howling autumn night.

As surely as the ubiquitous (airport) metal detector will find that gun in your pocket, so Jesus’ final sacrifice will detect any and all leftover need in our hearts for that one last blast of God’s wrath on earth.

I have sat through more than a few prophecy meetings with that uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach that something was wrong. Scriptures were racing up and down the concourses but I routinely found myself wishing for that transcendent metal detector. It sure looked like too many weapons (one is enough!) had made their way to the gate and I simply let those flights of fancy leave the airport without me.”

We simply must stop all interpretations of Scripture by the measure of news headlines and social studies! Jesus Christ IS the Word made flesh. Don’t understand a passage you are reading? Lay yourself and that passage into a full-on encounter with the Living Christ until He unpacks that truth into the deep end of YOU.

In Luke 9 we are told how Jesus was intent on going to Jerusalem, but also how He wanted to visit some villages in Samaria along the way. He sent messengers ahead who discovered that these villages were not inclined to have Jesus stop in on His way to Jerusalem. James and John, indignant at this news said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them? But He turned and rebuked them, and said, ‘You do not know what kind of spirit you are of; for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.”

(On a side note: I love how James and John are talking smack about calling fire down out of heaven when, at this stage of their faith development, they couldn’t light a gas soaked rag with a blow torch!)

Later in Luke 12:49,50 Jesus says, “I have come to cast fire upon the earth; and how I wish it were already kindled!” Soak in the very Presence of Christ and catch the spirit of these Words! HIS fire is a saving, healing, delivering, freeing ignition of LOVE to consume a world in pain clearly in contrast to a different kind of spirit that seeks obliteration!

Here’s a powerful teaching moment: the conspiracy theorists and end times aficionados are having a field day in this time of economic and political intrigue. Their “spirit” is loosing the thief whose only goal is to steal, kill and destroy. I say unequivocally that Jesus is the exact opposite of that misery and that He has ONLY come to loose LIFE more abundantly.

These are not just words for simple daily devotion. These Words reveal His overarching dominant character. If He rebukes the slightest notion that fire from heaven to destroy is of a wrong spirit then that must be a final filter for us today! If He achingly proclaims a desire to loose a fire that gives LIFE then that must be a final filter for every other theory we are tempted to believe for the collapse of our world.

Dispensational, end times theology has opened a door of ultimate despair, especially in times of instability and pain. This is completely out of step with the character of the Father as revealed in the Life of Jesus. Half measures to close this door will avail us nothing. Either the door is open or closed and I am taking this time of my life and ministry to risk slamming it completely shut.

Why? Because, sadly, as I write these words, a local community is currently suffering the acting out of hopelessness by teenagers with suicides and threats of violence. I don’t believe for a split second that the Body of Christ gets a free pass on these matters when our message is polluted with judgment, wrath, conspiracy and end times scenarios that serve a wrong spirit! That might sound like I am over reaching, but I don’t believe I am. When our light becomes darkness, how great is that darkness.

I understand dispensational theology because my bachelor’s degree was rooted in it. Though it never truly fed me and it always left me with a sense that something was amiss, I loyally defended it. But by the early 80’s I was desperate for truth.

What I discovered then was that dispensational theology was an anomaly on the historic church view of the end times. It had it roots in the mid 1800’s, which for church history sake, is a newcomer. But, being a newcomer alone wasn’t the issue for me. What pressed me deeply was the fruit of this “tree” and the subtle challenges it presented to the Character of God and the Face of Jesus.

As I have been saying all along here, it presumes that God has a deeply troubling nasty side. The “Great Tribulation” locked God into a 7 year need for extreme judgment by binding Him into partnership with our ability to destroy creation. Additionally, it proposes that creation itself will come off the hinges.

Dispensational theology is also founded on the idea that God has two people groups which He considers “chosen”. The earthly, which is national Israel, can only be redeemed through the processes of the “Great Tribulation”. And the heavenly people, which is the church, who are in a parenthetical dispensation now awaiting the rapture.

This is why a well known teacher from this view once said that when Jesus read from Isaiah 61:1-2 in Luke 4, He did not read beyond verse 2 of that passage because those promises were for the millennium and Jewish believers at that time. Go ahead and read Isaiah 61:2-11 for yourself. Ask yourself which of these promised beauties you would like to leave on the table of unbelief? I’ll pick just one, “and they will repair the ruined cities”, and tell you that it is no wonder the enemy of our soul wants us to believe that this is for another, unreachable time!

Once my heart was raptured (I love using this word correctly) by the revelation that ALL of the promises of God are potentially MINE, I could not be stopped. When I read in I Peter 2:9,10, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellences of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God….”, I have realized that God has ONE new people with ONE new plan for ONE new victory…. “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven…”

There is NO other view of His character than this from which my spiritual roots will draw strength.

Here’s that list of books I recommend for a more a technical and doctrinal discussion:
1. “The Seventy Weeks and the Great Tribulation” by Philip Mauro
2. “Paradise Restored” and “Days of Vengeance” by David Chilton
3. “The Rapture Exposed” by Barbara Rossing
4. “An Eschatology of Victory” by J. Marcellus Kik
5. “Victorious Eschatology” by Harold Eberle and Martin Trench
6. “The Sign of the Kingdom” by George Kouri and Richard Hogue
7. “Reinventing Your Church” by Brian McLaren (special attention to chapter 11 and the challenge to explore a “new eschatology” and why it is so important)
8. “Apocalypse WOW!” by James Finn Garner. Be warned; this book is by an unbeliever. His approach is strictly humorous but profoundly reflective of what the church becomes when we allow the voices of the “left behind” culture to define us all. It’s like looking in the mirror and discovering that you’ve been walking around all day with your zipper down and realizing why people haven’t been taking you seriously.
9. Any Bible Commentary that does not solely privilege dispensational theology like it’s the only way to see scriptures. For instance; New Bible Commentary; 21st Century Edition by InterVarsity Press or “Pulpit Commentary”
10. Use all Scofield Reference Bibles…..as coffee table decoration and never for an understanding of the “end times”.

Unlimited Abundant Life; A Proclamation of Freedom from End Times Marginalization of the Finished Work of Jesus Christ

2009-03-05T21:59:00.000-08:00

Let me start by saying I don’t entirely like my title! It sounds more formal than I am typically comfortable with, however, I simply could not reduce my thoughts to anything more concise.

Here’s what is at stake: the completed redemption of Jesus Christ by His once and for all sacrifice on the cross and His fulfillment of all the Pleasure of the Father in His Resurrection. See why my title is a bit word-y?

I Corinthians 2:1-5 suggests that Paul would walk into a gathering and take a reading-- is there a revelation of Christ crucified in this bunch? Is Jesus Christ crucified their final satisfaction for all wrath and judgment? Or does their God need anger management courses? Is their God as satisfied as Isaiah 53:11 predicted He would be when He looked on His Son's anguish in order to justify the many? Are these people freed by the crucified Christ from any further "need" for wrath? Because if they are, there will be a demonstration of the Spirit and of power and their faith will be in the power of God and not the wisdom of people. This is a place and a people where the Kingdom of God and revival will break out!

We are certainly discovering that to be true out here in Forest, Wisconsin. We are delighting in an atmospheric shift with the fresh air of a satisfied Father who loves to heal and deliver all kinds of messed up humanity.

We are in a covenant with permission granted to just BE in revival because all the price for admission has been paid for by the Crucified Christ. Judgment is satisfied...its time to seize and release the full benefits of Kingdom come….will of God be done….on earth AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.

But, make no mistake about it; this kind of faith and declaration cannot be made without an emancipation from the profound, albeit subterranean marginalizing effect of End Times hyperbole. Here’s why that’s true…

For the sake of simplicity I will need to use the most recognizable “handle” of what I believe has caused a spiritual anemia in the Church, not only today, but for many decades. Currently it is best recognized as “left behind”. While this genre has made for fascinating, high end book sales, it draws its nourishment from the soil of a dispensational theology that unwittingly demands 2 tragic and soul draining belief systems:
1. That God needs a 7 year Great Tribulation to finish His wrath.
2. That the entirety of the bursting benefits of Christ’s death and resurrection are not fully available until a time reserved away from today.

If it were not for these 2 demands, I could remain somewhat detached from a need to address this on this level. I would still see the treasury of God’s Word in a far more enriching manner, but I would hesitate from the possibility of entering yet another doctrinal debate where few win anything.

But those who know me best know that I take Isaiah 53:11 as a history shattering revelation for human kind; “As a result of the anguish of His soul, He (God) will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge (Christ) the Righteous One, My servant, will justify the many as He will bear their iniquities.” The context of this verse makes it clear that the prophet Isaiah was carried by the Holy Spirit to see how Christ was injected with all the evil, sinful nature of humankind and how it contorted and devastated even His physical visage. Any further need for God’s wrath upon humans based on the absolute justice of the Law was once and for all SATISFIED IN CHRIST!

To insert a specific 7 year period of wrath and give it a credibility even remotely close to the Suffering Servant of Isaiah’s prophecy is to diminish Jesus Christ and I refuse to allow that thinking anywhere near my thought life, much less, my spiritual nourishment.

This 7 year period, taught by some as the 70th week of Daniel, is an essential component of the “left behind” mentality. According to this theory, God’s wrath will be so complete that He will need to rapture the church out of harm’s way.
Here are my questions; what if God’s satisfaction is complete? What if the notion of a 7 year Great Tribulation has actually been accomplished in the perfect 7 of Jesus Christ and Him crucified? What if our western, rational, linear thinking has reduced the revelation of scripture to charts and time-lines? What if end times fear based teaching has robbed Jesus of the reward of His suffering?

To suggest that God needs to impose more suffering on humankind in order to complete His “plan” is to imply that Jesus did not complete the work of redemption. I agree with Jesus when He said from the cross, “It is finished”, and I also agree with Jesus when He said, “If I be lifted up (on the cross) I will draw ALL men to myself”.(John 12:32)

Let’s move on to #2 from above; that the “bursting benefits” of Christ are not fully available until another time, far removed from our faith.

Dispensational, “left behind”, end times thinking has dark lines drawn around multiple promises throughout scripture. I don’t have time or space to list the promises in this space, but here’s a rule of thumb to find those promises in the Bible; if it’s outrageously good, culture reforming and nation healing, it is for the millennium and not for now. Here again, I refuse to plant my faith anywhere near this kind of irresponsible, convenient detachment from my accountability to be a man of faith.

Even the Lord’s prayer can not be answered on this side of the millennium according to this theory, “Thy Kingdom come…” is primarily for future reference, at best, because, only when Christ returns, after the 7 years of Great Tribulation, will the Kingdom come.

I will write more again next week. To conclude my thoughts today I want to be quick to note that my Bachelor’s degree program was deeply entrenched in this school of dread. I understand its nuances, its Bible proof-texts and its history. I spent an inordinate of amount of my early years of ministry trying to believe it and defend it. In 1983 I was exhausted by the bankruptcy of the lack of its spiritual dynamic.

When I came to believe that God was ready, willing and able to make good on any promise of His Word, my exhaustion was turned to exhilaration! To believe that I could participate in the healing of the nations drew me out of the malaise of a truncated view of a world about to “end”. Micah 4 was no longer locked away in the millennium…it became a faith dare to be a participant in the exaltation of a glorious church that would attract the nations of the world to come and see our Glorious God!

To all the fans of “left behind” I urge you to read Psalm 37, Proverbs 2:21,22; 10:30 and then look at Matthew 24:36-41. In the light of God’s promises that, “the meek will inherit the earth” and “the righteous will remain and the wicked removed”….how can we any longer read that the coming of the Son of Man will be as it was in the days of Noah without seeing that the wicked were removed and the righteous (Noah) was, “left behind”?

Think about it and come back next week for more, “Unlimited Abundant Life; A Proclamation of Freedom from the “End Times” Marginalization of the Finished Work of Jesus Christ”.

From Blog to Book

2009-02-11T14:19:00.000-08:00

Attention, all my loyal blog fans...I have recently completed writing my first book! For Christmas I asked my family for the gift of 2 weeks of isolation. My amazing wife, Ginger came through with a 12 day seclusion at a nearby lake side cabin.

I could not have finished this book without that gift! I have been working on this project for the better part of 3 years. For the past year I have been agonizingly close to being done, but massively stuck at a couple of key points. Sitting in a recliner, the winter sun burning in my face, looking out over a frozen lake with the temperatures no higher than zero most days was just the ticket I needed to complete this book.

The title, right now, is "Radiance; The Transcendent Nature of the Kingdom of God". It is a call to be radiant with God's Flames from another world. To set this world on fire with the radiance of the Transcendent Supremacy of the Kingdom of God.

Five people are proof reading, even as I type these words. I hope to have a final manuscript to the publisher by early March. Please pray. I have a prophetic word from Alice Sharping that says, "You will be amazed at how easily your book is published. It will be a supernatural work. It is much bigger than you think..."

Thank you for your patience in my absence from the blog. I have heard, loud and clear, from some of you that you miss me....it's nice to know.

Stay tuned; I will update you when there is news to tell....
~prd~

3 New Age Mystics From Iraq

2008-12-17T15:04:00.000-08:00

Matthew 2:1-15 Boldly records events that, if they happened today, what would likely be roundly criticized in many Christian circles. In this ages old color commentary of the birth of Christ, Bible knowledge is sharply contrasted with 3 eastern mystical Kings in eager pursuit of a revelation of KINGDOM NOW through visions, dreams and signs. These events beg the question:How long will we substitute reading, hearing and even knowing the scriptures for the precious reality of living in the transcendent supremacy of the KINGDOM NOW?

The Matthew 2 passage is renowned for reading in children’s Christmas plays. The truth is that if these same easterners showed up in some of our church services we’d have ushers, prayer warriors, deliverance team members and a 9 and a 1 dialed to protect our children from them!

“Pastor! Those guys that just came in are saying that they’ve been ‘reading’ the stars and that one star in particular told them to come HERE….from, brace yourself pastor….from IRAQ!” (It is a historic fact that “We 3 Kings” probably came from modern day Iraq)

Furthermore, the Matthew passage tells us that Herod called in his best Bible teachers of the day (Chief priests and Scribes) to learn more about where the Christ was to be born. Astonishingly enough, they read Micah 5 to him and he, in turn uses that information in an attempt to turn the 3 Kings into unwitting snitches who will come back to him and reveal the exact location of Jesus so Herod can have him killed!

Wait a minute….are these Bible teachers and Herod using the Bible for something other than reaching into the Heavens for a revelation of signs that make you wonder? Are they using the scriptures for information instead of transformation? Could it be that they are so cold hearted as to miss the possibility of the KINGDOM NOW even as they take their stand upon chapter and verse? Does any of this sound familiar?

You can read, hear and “know” the scriptures apart from the Holy Spirit and be just as dead as never having opened a Bible. But if you can read, hear or know any Word in the Book, you have an opportunity to reach into to it by the Spirit and make it your own personal sign and wonder. It is the Holy Spirit’s personal assignment to make these stories and Words WONDER-FULL. When once you ever dare to pull a Word into your experience you will find that the same Word will pull you UP into the heavenlies and out of your mere material subsistence.

I know this blog is a bit scattered and maybe even a tad bit disjointed. Perhaps just a reflection of me these days. If you’ve made it this far, I’m sure you can bear with me to the following conclusion. In John 5:37-42 Jesus said to a group of upstanding Bible “knowers” that for all their searching the scriptures, they were not entering the very Life of those same verses. Readers, its time for a new breed of mystics whose faith is deeply rooted in Love for the Bible, not as a portable Museum…but as a Map for amazing discovery through visions, dreams and signs, O MY!

Bondslave of the Impossible

2008-12-09T11:19:00.000-08:00

Those who know me well know that I adore the story of mother Mary with a towering honor for her spirit. To me she embodies every quality which ought to typify all of Christianity. While Catholicism worships her as a deity and Protestants run the other way, both extremes are sadly in error. For the Catholic to make this beautiful lady a god is to miss the raw power of her humanity. For the Protestant to lightly pay her “honorable mention” pitifully misses the dare of God’s call to us to become as she was; a bondslave of the Lord and His impossible offer.

Luke 1:37,38 Records the summary of Mary and the angel Gabriel’s conversation, “(Gabriel) For nothing will be impossible with God. And Mary said, ‘Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word.’” Does that do to you what it does to me? Let me see if I can unpack this adequately….
Mary is, at most, 16. There is absolutely no precedent for what she is hearing. The closest thing that might have crossed her mind was that of much older, married women of the Old Testament who were given children of promise….along with their husbands!

Mary is on an island in this category. There is no other way to describe this encounter other than astonishing in its reach and stunning in its ramifications. Yet, something in the transcendence of the moment pushes Mary to the conclusion that she must become a bondslave to this impossibility! Hear that again; she happily surrendered herself as a SLAVE of the Lord and His offer of doing the impossible.
My apostolic father, Bill Johnson says it this way, “Our debt to the world is an encounter with God”. To that end, we must become bondslaves of doing the impossible. A people of a covenant to live beyond our means! To do works that transcend my limited abilities to show the world a God of unlimited abilities. If all the church is offering is clean living born out of good doctrine then we have certainly become what Paul warned us about, “…holding a form of godliness although they have denied its power…avoid such men as these.”

We owe our culture a living, visible demonstration of the Kingdom of another world. Jesus told His disciples to heal the sick and define that moment of healing as the Kingdom’s appearance on earth. I’m not batting a thousand on that command, YET….
But all around me are the evidences of the Kingdom’s transcendent supremacy. Just to name a few: A premature baby alive and well. A case of vertigo, gone in an instant. A life time of back pain smashed by Kingdom come. Cancer….GONE. A multiple year stomach ailment removed overnight. Ten new clients in a budding new ministry for the eradication of addictions…delivered by the power of the Kingdom and a Kingdom warrior named Steve. A marriage dragged back from the abyss into abundant living. Mental illnesses erased. An ocean that could not break my son-in-law’s neck. A unbeliever who walks into our gathering and hears the prophetic reading of their heart. Story after story of recent conversions into an irresistible Kingdom that draws humans into an encounter with God not because they were threatened with hell to come but because they tasted Heaven on earth in the Kingdom NOW!

I’m a happy slave of conquering the impossible. I’ve discovered the true nature of Christianity is the presence of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. I’ve heard it said that when we get to heaven “some day” that we’re in for a lot of surprises. While I’m sure that’s true, I’ve decided to take a different path of life that minimizes my surprises tomorrow through discovery TODAY.

Just prior to World War II amphibious landings were deemed impossible due to notable failures in World War I. MacArthur, Eisenhower and other heroes of that day never got their boots wet in basic training for an amphibious assault. A lesser known military officer nicknamed, “Mad (as in mad-man) Smith advised the strategists of his day that the war could not be won without large scale amphibious assaults. “Mad” was told that such an idea was impossible. His answer? “Well, then we are going to do the impossible and we are going to do the impossible WELL.” Mr. Mad was a bondslave to the impossible. World War II was won by heroes who did the impossible.

Mad, Mary, Randy…..any more bondslaves out there?

Quick Update on Darren

2008-12-08T11:36:00.000-08:00

As some of you may already know, my son-in-law Darren Hose was badly injured in a freak accident in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico last Wednesday. He, along with my daughter Libby and our 2 grand-daughters were given a condo for a week and they were having the time of their lives enjoying the sun, the ocean and boogie boarding. Darren had befriended a policeman from Canada and the two of them were hitting some unusual waves that had churned up. Suddenly one of those waves crested and simply dropped in a rogue fashion that literally threw Darren to the ocean floor like a cannon ball….face first.

When he hit the floor his neck must have bent at a 90 degree angle. His doctor here said Friday that the spinal cord was stretched as far as it could be without snapping. Darren told us that he immediately knew that he had no use of his legs and arms. His mouth was jammed full of sand. When he finally floated to the surface he forced the sand out and screamed for help. The Canadian cop sprang into action and saved Darren’s life.

Without going into the frightening hours that followed, suffice it to say that Libby was gathering and wrangling her 3 year old and 8 month old daughters into a nightmare experience at a foreign hospital. She called me and sent out the immediate cry for prayer. The following day, with help from the Red Cross and 2 or 3 maxed credit cards we got Darren on a plane home. (Note to all travelers: never, NEVER, NEVER travel without trip insurance! The Hoses are kicking themselves that they did not take out the $37 per person insurance that would have paid for everything, including a trip home for the girls WITH Darren, instead of the trip they had to make alone on their regular tickets 2 days later).

We praise God that today Darren is walking and at home! He is not out of the woods as to the extreme pain in his arms which is the result of the spinal cord trauma. Darren describes it as having been skinned alive. His doctor says that this is a typical reaction when a patient is recovering from near paralysis.

A benefit account has been established at Anchor Bank PO Box 475 New Richmond, WI 54017-9935 in the name of “Darren Hose Benefit”. Check our church web site at www.lwc1.com for ongoing updates.

Heavenly Knighthood (Christmas Blog Reissue)

2008-12-02T09:28:00.000-08:00

One of the great classic scriptures describing the Christmas story is found in Luke 2:8-20. The problem with such passages is that they take on such a legendary and mythical status that they can cease to be present day truth that can kick our butts out of bed and light fires of destiny. Let’s spend a few moments and challenge that notion…

Angels catch shepherds in the graveyard shift and stun them with a rock opera blast in the heavens. The original language strikes a chord in me on several levels here; “…the glory of the Lord flashed and shone all about them and they were terribly frightened”. “Frightened” in the “check your shorts” category of screaming, “mommy!!!!” Then the town-crier angel attempts to correct the problem he caused by saying, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all people. For to you is born this day in the town of David a Savior, Who is Christ, the Messiah, the Lord!”

This next account has always been a favorite of mine. It has always brought a passionate and vibrant sense of heaven’s dynamic expectation of what God is about to do on earth. I have such a holy ache for us to be like this heavenly blast of excitement; “And suddenly, there appeared with the angel an army of the troops of heaven- a heavenly knighthood- praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace’”

A HEAVENLY KNIGHTHOOD crashed through the night skies. Imagine with me the closing scene of the movie, “Braveheart” where warrior poets run to the battle field with reckless abandonment. A HEAVENLY KNIGHTHOOD ripped the curtain off the threshold between that world and this and in essence said, “God be PRAISED! LOOK OUT earth, here we come with Heaven’s Messiah King in tow. The final invasion begins NOW and everyone who receives this is about to have their world rocked. The earth is about to be repossessed by its rightful Owner and there is no turning back”.

The Christmas story tells me that I will never understand or even begin to appreciate the Second Coming of Christ if I have not become a full partner in and an active participant with the First Coming of Christ. A Heavenly Knighthood preceded His First Coming and they are still here to this day to pick a fight for peace on earth with any interloper or intruder who opposes Christ’s rightful claim to the planet for which He died.

His Second Coming will not be announced by the whimper of a Church clutching to our memories of Christmas Past when we could say, “Merry Christmas” without signing petitions. His Glorious Return will be attended by the same Knighthood of Heaven who will be savoring the Marriage of the Messiah King to a Glorious Bride whose brilliance will be comparable to His own. “On earth, peace!” is not just a song to be sung but a war to be won!

God is in a Good Mood

2008-11-25T10:43:00.000-08:00

I was visiting with a local radio and newspaper reporter this morning and he and I were reflecting on the “mood” of people. Our conclusion (and it’s always nice to find somebody who agrees with me implicitly) was this: the information age has created a monster! Four major news networks pump the airwaves full of every infinitesimal detail of every possible story on the planet 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The old adage used to be, “stay tuned for film at 10pm.” FORGET THAT! Now, film can be instantly viewed by satellite, youtube, cable and even on our cell phones (!) at the very instant the event is happening. The result is that if there is something to scare you, worry you, intimidate you, give you pause, terrify you and generally make you want to run to your basement, bomb shelter or local law enforcement officer, a billion people (give or take a million here or there) know about it and are spreading the word before one scintilla of fact can be confirmed.

As if that isn’t enough, then a few voices of the church join the fray. I stumbled onto a late night TV “evangelist” the other day as he gleefully quoted scriptures faster than a speeding bullet and sprayed the background with news clips full of misery. The only thing missing was the Twilight Zone theme music. His program ended with an invitation to, “come to Jesus”. Am I missing something here? If God is somehow at the root of all the crazy bad stuff, how am I supposed to want to come to Jesus?

This year, Christmas can’t come a minute too soon, as far as I’m concerned. Luke’s gospel heralds, “…there were shepherds staying out in the fields, and keeping watch over their flock by night. (I know the feeling!) and an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them….and said, ‘I bring you good news of a great joy which shall be for all people’…” Paraphrased it means, “Hey, everybody on earth; God is in a really good mood! He would really like for you to join Him.”

This isn’t to say that we should pretend that bad stuff isn’t happening. It IS to say that the only productive way THROUGH bad stuff is to wrap your arms around a God who is in a good mood. He’s not angry. Jesus satisfied the wrath of God (Isaiah 53:11). He’s not the cause of our calamity, He isn’t in need of anger management counseling, He’s not running out of patience and He is most certainly NOT looking for new and creative ways to roast His creation! Nice and slow, read the Luke passage again, “GOOD news….GREAT joy…. for ALL people…”. God IS in a good mood; join Him.

Turn off the bad news and go do some holy rockin’ around the Christmas tree. That’s where you’ll find me and my house this year.

Kingdom NOW!

2008-11-19T14:42:00.000-08:00

(The following is a transcript of my teaching at Living Word Chapel, Wednesday November 19, 2008)
Our goal, our command, our mission is nothing less than the Kingdom of Heaven explosively expressed, demonstrated, witnessed and enjoyed on the earth. We are not here to provide the church as a hiding place from the world. It is a sin to seek refuge from a storm over which we have been given authority. We are here to equip and ignite the church as platoons of infiltration, saturation and permeation throughout all of society for nothing less than the eventual healing of the nations through the triumphant resurrection power of the Lord Jesus Christ. My passion is to ignite you in each and every service with the flames of another world so that you leave here smoldering to overcome the lesser realities of the world you will walk through all week long.

It has been said that America’s last and best hope is revival. While I am sympathetic to the notion, and on many levels cooperative with the concept, it is my personal belief that Jesus proclaimed an even greater and more superior transcendence through His delivery of the very real and raw power appearance of the Kingdom of God on the earth. Upon launching His ministry He unapologetically proclaimed that everything from Him forward had the intrinsic potential of being transformed into outrageously good news.

Without so much as a hint of marginalization He shouted, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:14-15) Allow me to pastorally paraphrase; “The wait is over. God has drawn a dark line in eternal sand. God’s total dominion expressed through human beings is presently fully available and simply at the disposal of your own hand. God is far better, bigger, presently available and massively potent than you think so change the way you think. Everything from here forward can be shockingly and fundamentally radicalized into good news.”

And then, as if to offer a sample of the raw power and simplicity of His “revival” Jesus journeys to the Sea of Galilee, sees Simon and his brother Andrew doing their work, steps into their space and seizes control of the atmosphere around them. Without a word of explanation other than the plain announcement, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men. And they immediately left the nets and followed Him.” (Mark 1:16-18)

Herein, Jesus straight away demonstrates the ascendancy of His domain. Again, please allow me the indulgence of a paraphrase; “Hello fishermen. You are clearly familiar with the tactile pleasure of fish weighing in against your nets as an immediate reward for your craft and knowledge of placing those nets in strategic places and proportions so that the fish don’t know they’ve been caught until it is too late. Their instincts are no match for your clever ability to make a living at the expense of their self-indulgent swimming freedom. Hey; here’s a thought. Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of humans. Upon hearing these Words somewhere more deeply than they had ever heard a word in their lives, their hands obeyed a signal from a different source than merely the brain and they dropped their nets in order to make room to grab the insuperable domain, which, quite honestly had already grabbed them.”

To further underline these remarkable (pun intended….re-Mark-able) events Jesus takes His new human catch to the Synagogue and teaches. As He speaks, authoritative dominion power (with real effect being put into the atmosphere) is being released in His Words. (Mark 1:-22) Suddenly, a man with an unclean spirit cries out THE REALITY OF WHAT WAS HAPPENING IN THE SPIRIT REALM! (Mark 1:24) But Jesus would rather speak for Himself, thank you very much, and so He did and cleaned “house” in front of the entire synagogue.

If you continue to follow Mark’s account you read with utter amazement at the sheer power of the raw appearance of the Kingdom of God in, around and through Jesus. Two different homes are physically over-run by the crowds. One of those homes has its roof torn open in order to lower a lame man. In one place Mark says, “the whole city had gathered at the door”. In another place Jesus’ new “catch of the day” disciples searched everywhere to find Him (because He was out banking into Himself more of the Presence of God and the Kingdom) and when they found Him they excitedly kept telling him that, “everyone is looking for You.” (Mark 1:37)

So what’s my point? Our goal, our command, our mission is nothing less than the Kingdom of Heaven explosively expressed, demonstrated, witnessed and enjoyed on the earth. We are not here to provide the church as a hiding place from the world. It is a sin to seek refuge from a storm over which we have been given authority. We are here to equip and ignite the church as platoons of infiltration, saturation and permeation throughout all of society for nothing less than the eventual healing of the nations through the triumphant resurrection power of the Lord Jesus Christ. My passion is to ignite you in each and every service with the flames of another world so that you leave here smoldering to overcome the lesser realities of the world you will walk through all week long.

KINGDOM, COME, NOW!

An Open Letter

2008-11-17T09:21:00.000-08:00

Note the date posted just below. I have held this letter since that time as one among many writings I have filed through the years. Most are still filed, a few I have mailed, emailed or blogged. This is one of the few I am putting to my blog. I struggled with the contrast in content in view of my later blog, “A Culture of Honor” but I have decided to post this as well. I am still thoroughly committed to the content of “A Culture of Honor” as I view this newest post as a plea to the “handlers” and offered with no disrespect to our current new slate of leaders.
Feel free to send this along to any political party leaders you know, local or otherwise. I am committed to the idea of putting this in as many hands as I can.
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October 28, 2008

To the Winners and the Losers of the Political Parties,

Congratulations and condolences. Both wishes are offered equally and without obvious application. The winners have lost more than what seems obvious and the losers might still win if the slogans of both sides of the campaigns can be changed from a cheer leading promise to living truth: CHANGE!

I am writing this letter exactly one week before the November general election. It is based on a wide variety of ponderings as a rural pastor/shepherd keeping watch over his flock by night. I’d like to say that a host of angels burst out in the dark sky announcing the arrival of peace, good will for all. It is quite the contrary. While I am elated that such an event is already etched in history and perfectly confident that its transcendent supremacy can not be reversed, I am also deeply troubled by the dreadful darkness that your campaign trails have plowed through the soul of this nation.

At a time of grave and real anxiety both major political parties gleefully seized the moment with barrels of salt to discharge into the nation’s wounds. At the risk of dragging the minutia of yet another poll into this mix, I do want to refer to the general conclusions of one poll (Associated Press-Yahoo News Poll conducted by Knowledge Networks conducted in early October) that reflected that the majority of Americans of all political stripes are “worried, unhappy, fatigued and frightened”. Yet both party’s political aspirations fueled an emotional feeding frenzy at the scent of our blood in the waters of your grabbing and grasping for political power. This is nothing less than shameful behavior easily comparable to a raging alcoholic parent threatening a family with further harm if they don’t unconditionally cede control.

One candidate for a national office completely fit the profile of this picture saying, “Once this campaign is over, the nation must be healed! We’ve been through a terrible time.” Hmmm….I’ve counseled a few people down through the years who have related how a rage-oholic adult would ravage a home and then sit down with the family later in tears to talk about how much they care and only desire to heal the bruises. It’s like a hospital posting snipers on the roof and simultaneously advertising discounted deals on treatments for gunshot wounds.

The following paragraph is now being written almost 2 weeks after the election.

Please end this vicious cycle. Please spend the next gap in time between campaigns in a search for the high road. Please read the other postings of this blog, “A Culture of Honor” and “Is it November 5th Yet?” Please fire the political gun slingers and hire some spiritual advisors. Please tell us what your core values truly are instead of spending millions to vomit in our living rooms. The mess is real, the stench is overwhelming and Republicans, Democrats and Independents are responsible. Please STOP IT!

I told my congregation this week to rise above the rancor and learn to be better and bigger people. I said this, “There will be those who feel that their cause is so just, so right that it grants them the right to be disrespectful and dishonoring. I say we should ennoble our cause by honoring those in authority who represent the contrary. Shine the light of honor on all your opinions, political or otherwise, so that those on the contrary side might better see what truth lies within.”

Peace,

Pastor Randy Dean

A Culture of Honor

2008-11-06T09:22:00.000-08:00

(The bulk of the following has been brewing in my spirit for many days leading up to the national general election of 2008. As you can tell, the first paragraph is specific to the very day of the election, but beyond that, these are words that the Holy Spirit has been perfecting within me).

I am writing this on the morning of November 4, 2008. There are no election returns in yet but I am thrilled to see lines all over the country as voter turn out is literally off the charts. Some of the pundits say that this bodes well for one party over the other but I say, regardless, this bodes well for our nation! I have longed to see this kind of involvement since the day I cast my first vote in 1972.

Whoever the new president is, I honor him now. I am personally committed to making a break with the past extreme partisan nastiness that has soiled the American soul for at least the past 16 years. I’m starting my own campaign, beginning now, for a national healing renewal that begins and ends in the Church (which, by the way, should have always been in the Church) as it relates to our relationship to governing authorities and beyond.

My apostolic father, Bill Johnson, when pondering the formation of a network of churches and ministries, wondered aloud several months ago, “How far could we go in a culture of honor?” He voiced this as others around him were pressing for a more formalized and legislated mechanism of relationship. That simple revelation of honor is now becoming a thriving spiritual family spreading the revival dynamics of the Kingdom of God internationally.

I Peter 2:17 says, “Honor all men; love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the King.” The first mention in that verse of honor is the greek word “tee-may-o” which means to prize, fix a valuation on and value with reverence. The second word is “tim-may” which actually ratchets up the stakes of the word to mean pay a price for value, to have esteem and dignity and to view as precious. Have you discovered that people will generally live up (or down, as the case may be) to the value you genuinely place in them? In our society’s full court press to teach “self-esteem” to our children, have we inadvertently omitted the possibility that esteem for self may be best built and expressed in a healthy and holy esteem for others?

Our current political climate has pretty much created a national sport of blasting the esteem out of others in a naked attempt to achieve our ambitions. Then when the elections are over we reap what we’ve sown as we go after the folks at the top until we can successfully blast them out of any esteem or value and this cycle goes on and on, and worse and worse.

My goal today is to be one person in my place of influence to put an end to that cycle. We can no longer wait for someone else to do this. We can no longer wait for “our” person to win an office before we decide to do the honor thing. In fact, the purest honor, the most tested and reliable honor is honor placed somewhere and in someone where it has cost you something to give it! I would go so far as to suggest that honor isn’t honor UNTIL it costs you something.

I admire the skills of a good comedian. Dennis Miller is a good comedian, not my favorite comedian, but a very skilled one. Recently, on a late night show he was in rare form lampooning Senator Obama. Suddenly, he reined in his monologue and took a serious turn. In a rare move for any comedian he apologized for a part of his verbal run that made fun of the Obama family. And then he said, “Listen, whoever wins this election…could we all agree now to avoid making the new president yet another anti-Christ?” The crowd cheered. This resonates with what I’m sharing here.

What would it look like if people of faith bestowed an outrageous spirit of blessing and honor, even on those we might deem had nothing intrinsically deserving of the same? What would it look like for us to be genuinely and profoundly thankful as we prayed for those in authority? (I Timothy 2:1-3) What would it look like for a body of believers to be an army unarmed by human resources yet heavily armed by Kingdom Resources who determine ALWAYS and in ALL THINGS to overcome evil (real or perceived) WITH GOOD? (Romans 12)

In Isaiah 44 and 45 the prophet speaks a Kingdom declaration on the pagan king of Persia and calls him “My Shepherd” (44:28) and “anointed” (45:1) Ezra 1 says that the expenses for Judah’s return to her land and the restoration of the temple came “by the hand” of that pagan government. If God can call Cyrus anointed, who am I to think that God could not do the same with someone elected to such an influencial position as the presidency?

Did you know that in his run for the presidency Abraham Lincoln promised to uphold State’s Rights in slavery and yet he is best known now for the Emancipation Proclamation (which overturned the State's rights with federal power)? What’s the greater miracle? That a pro-life president get elected? Or that a pro-choice president might have a change of heart?

What deeply concerns me in today's Christian "world-view" is that far too much of it is fear based and enslaved to the narrow view that our highest and best exercise of "power" is political. What political power did Jesus wield? How often did Jesus preach political activism against the raging vicious power of Rome? Never! And yet, where is the center of the world's largest Christian denomination today? ROME! How was Rome defeated? By the subtle servant King who healed the sick and made broken hearts whole again.

I am certainly not suggesting that we should take some lazy approach of political nuetrality....a snoozy "whatever" approach. On the contrary, I believe that the passage I referenced above (I Peter 2) demands of us in verse 12 "good works". Works so incredibly excellent and self-less that the world observing us sees them and shouts, "GLORY TO GOD!" It's one thing for us to sing "glory to God" in the comfort of our worship services....it is quite another thing to do something so God glorifying that a watching world can not hold back their praise to God because of what they see in us!

Is It November 5th YET?

2008-10-28T07:59:00.000-07:00

"Are we almost there? I'm sick of the backseat! How much longer? I have to pee! Johnny's on my side of the seat! Am not! Barack is touching me! Am not! I don't want your germs! Your friends are weird! Oh yea? Well, you're stupid best friend, George is an idiot! Oh yea? Well, I saw you hanging out with that mean guy, Billy... he blew up something! Oh yea? Well, take this...George, George, George, George!!! Shows what you know...I don't even like George anymore! Oh, riiiiight...I saw you and George KISSING! HA...and that girl-friend of yours? EWWWWWW...she is sooooo not cool! Everybody LIKES me! Everybody HATES you! Oh yea? Well, well, well....I'm going to give lots of money to all my friends...a million trillion dollars! Oh yea? Well, I am going to give even MORE money to all MY friends, a trillion BILLION dollars!Oh yea? Well, you're a baby killer! Oh yea? Well, you're a baby polar bear killer! Oh yea? Well, you ARE a baby! Oh yea? Well, you just do dumb things...dumb, dumb, dumb!"

ARGHHHHHH!!!!! Are we there yet? I'm REALLY REALLY getting sick!

Sheer Joy Demands Companionship

2008-10-08T06:50:00.000-07:00

One quick thought to you today; "God is sheer joy, and sheer joy demands companionship". (Saint Thomas Aquinas)

Hear this command that echoes off the canyon walls of the mighty Revelation of Jesus Christ, "Come up here..." (Revelation 4:1). The Father's outrageous pleasure is demanding company. Our earth-bound fears, anxieties, ponderings, pettinesses and pitynesses are a waste of our time! Sheer joy is waiting the pleasure of your company...."COME UP HERE!"

I'm already in lift-off....would you like to join me? The dance floor has room for a few more this morning.....

Elitism in America

2008-10-06T15:15:00.000-07:00

Today I feel compelled to speak to something I see happening in the nation I love. What I say here may bear but a small influence but I believe that even one tiny ray of light shined on any darkness can begin a much larger enlightenment.

I have gone on record many weeks ago that while I admire and respect Senator Barack Obama, I do not believe he is experientially qualified to be the next president of the United States. If I were on a hiring committee interviewing candidates for such a position it would be a simple no-brainer. “You’ve got a great start here, young man. Keep up the good work and get back to us after you’ve finished your first term as Senator.” I know from my own experience of hiring public school teachers for the past 15 years that when I look at a resume and I see short term stays, especially just prior to the current hire I’m responsible for, those raise major concerns.

I have also been very plain spoken about my lack of enthusiasm for Senator John McCain. Until recently, I have yearned to hear something from his campaign that had the authentic ring of inspiration that could adorn the “bully pulpit” of his potential presidency. That is, until he picked Sarah Palin as his running mate.

Now, here is where I want to sail into the theme of this writing. For me, Governor Palin has had a positive polarizing effect on this historic presidential race. At first, I could not quite put my finger on what it was that she brought to the table. Of course, some of it was obvious. You get the feeling that when she is speaking to any crowd that she’s using the same voice and words you would hear if she was sitting in your living room having a cup of coffee and shooting the breeze.

But it wasn’t until the now infamous interviews she held with Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric that I’ve been able to put my thoughts in a coherent discussion. Governor Palin has, I think most likely without knowing it, brought a sharp exposure to a growing infection in American culture. The best label I can give it would be, “elitism”. It’s intellectual, political and philosophic elitism. Some have called it the “main-stream media” but I think that’s too easy to throw stones at because, frankly, the “main-stream media” could not exist in our free market system without the support of some base of readership and viewing audience. This is an elitism that has a profound influence on the minds and sensibilities of our population.

I see it almost everyday as a pastor. There is an elitist mindset that views faith, worship, church and spirituality with immediate and sharp cynicism. On this matter alone I could write a book, but that isn’t my purpose here.

Let’s go back to the Alaskan governor. Here’s a short list of the criticisms that came out of the aforementioned interviews;
1. She could not articulate Supreme Court decisions that she had specific problems with.
2. She could not immediately name the newspapers and magazines she reads
3. She did not know the “Bush Doctrine”
4. She fumbled through her answer about the $700 billion bail out package
5. She stumbled around for an answer about foreign policy

There’s more but I want to hurry on to my point. If you listen carefully to the interviews you can understand better the background with which Governor Palin was being contrasted. She was me or you sitting in a room with the elitist mind set all around her. Politically correct pontiffs were trolling the Alaskan waters for the catch of the day. She has since refreshingly laughed at herself and (brace yourself) APOLOGIZED for allowing the tenor of the questions to get under her skin! She said she thought the questions would be something more akin to what would matter to average Americans. And it is precisely on that point that I think the light comes on for those of us, the unwashed masses, on the outside of the elite looking in.

Saturday Night Live, a parade of actors, comedians, musicians, singers and high profile “thinkers” are having a field day with this….this nasty commoner posing on the political stage as a serious player. “That’s our stage, little girl! Run along now, missy. Go on back to the igloo out of which you obviously crawled and leave the important matters to us and our giant brains”. These are people who have been largely isolated from the peasantry of American life. Their fame, wealth and provincial intellectualism has produced a parochial world view not unlike the picture of the puberty stricken kid who is routinely embarrassed when he or she has to acknowledge the presence of their parents in front of their friends. “Mom! Shut up! You’re so stupid! Gall!"

This mismatch is providing us with a teachable moment. It seems to me that an incredible number of real Americans love “Sarah” because she is so “gall-darned” REAL! When she can’t immediately think of a recent Supreme Court case that she disagrees with, there are some of us who think, “maybe its time to put some confidence in someone who isn’t living by the ‘script’”. When she can’t immediately spit out the number newspapers and magazines she reads, I know I’m thinking, “I’m sick of most the ones I AM reading!” When she fumbles on a foreign policy question I can imagine an enormous number of regular folks looking back at the TV saying, “Gee, I don’t feel so dumb after all”…and the $700 billion bail out? Who IS giving us a readily understandable explanation of that mammoth? What are we to conclude about all this?

There are millions upon millions of Americans who are more and more convinced that any one of us could do at least as well in Washington D.C. as the professionals are doing now! Have you seen the commercial (selling what? I don’t have a clue…) where firefighters in their firefighting outfits are conducting the business of Congress? They rapidly “Yay” and “Nay” through some decisions and conclude their session with the captain saying, “That’s the easiest job I’ve ever had”. I am personally convinced that Sarah Palin, win lose or draw, has become a defining persona in a landmark election simply because she IS Sarah Palin.

So let the intelligentsia have their way; they are more and more clearly isolated and self defined for future dismissal. And, I pray, Sarah just keeps on being SARAH, for her own sake, for our sake and for heaven’s sake.

God save the anti-queen.

The Value System of His Sacrifice

2008-09-29T16:04:00.000-07:00

If my faith is not reaching into the value system of His sacrifice I will end up walking in some kind of sin. Not the kind of sin that robs a liquor store, but the “church-y” sin that allows for a self righteous bigotry and shame based vision of God. Sin is simply and terribly, “missing the mark”, misfiring at the bull’s eye and sending an arrow to a less satisfying but more easily achieved destination.

I want to be very careful in defining what I hope to convey here. Bill Johnson, an apostle who is rapidly owning my heart as a spiritual father, says, “Reaction to error simply creates more error”, and he could not be more on target. My purpose could easily get lost in that kind of reaction. My goal is to call my readers to cultivate their spiritual roots deep into a most holy and healthy soil and away from depleted and anemic dirt. So, I will take some calculated risks to that end and press you upward, hopefully with a bare minimum of looking elsewhere.

I have a “three strike rule” when listening to any given teaching or reading any material from most Christian sources. When I hear one of the phrases, “the end times”, or “the last days”, I internally register, “strike one, strike two and strike three”. Why? Because these two phrases are usually taking nourishment from the church-y sin I described in the first paragraph. When strike three is achieved, I don’t necessarily check off the speaker or author as a bad person or completely false (recently someone on a CD I was listening to referred to the “end times” 17 times in 20 minutes!). I simply bring into play a much stronger filter for my soul.

Several years ago I heard a man of God say, “Take it easy, chicken little….you’ve got time to obey God”. That statement alone could change your whole life! Obedience based on a heart that yearns to be trained, mentored, transformed, renewed and fully engaged is nurtured in the environment of a holy holistic Creator. Obedience rooted in any of a number of versions of a Heavenly Father in need of some kind of anger management due to His ever shrinking patience with our behavior or a loudly ticking clock in the Throne Room is not obedience, but, in fact, is dysfunctional at best and dreadfully shame based at worst. In the environment of a holy holistic Creator everyone and everything is getting HEALED, in the other environment everyone, including the health care givers, is getting more diseased.

Even the phrase, “this end times revival” at times drives me to distraction. Too often it implies that God is in a hurry-up offense, the 2-minute drill. He’s ratcheting up the numbers so He can be justified in the inevitable horrible end that’s just around the corner.

We need to get a grip! A grip on the True and Living God whose vision for His creation was fully finally secured in the Words of His Son on the cross, “IT IS FINISHED!” The Law and the Prophets have been fulfilled, the Kingdom of God is at YOUR HAND, the Lamb of God has taken away the Sin of the world, The Father has looked at the anguish of His Son’s soul and He is satisfied! The magnificent Redemption of Christ Jesus trumps all notions of any angry God scenarios. The New Testament writers proclaimed the “last days” as connected to their own time and not some futuristic END.

In Bill Johnson’s book, “When Heaven Invades Earth” he says (page 34) “One of the tragedies of a weakened identity is how it affects our approach to Scripture. Many, if not most theologians, make the mistake of taking all the good stuff contained in the prophets and sweeping it under that mysterious rug called, ‘the Millennium’…..the mistaken idea is this: if it is good, it can’t be for now.”

The Moravian believers have a core vision captured in these words, “Win for the Lamb that was slain the reward for His sufferings”. Herein is found all the motivation we need to be in a full on pursuit of the Will of God and the purposes of the Kingdom of God! God’s Son Jesus has finished the work of a New Creation. It is our privilege and honor to passionately labor for the spread of New Eden, the glorious Kingdom of God!

Only a bully stands in the playground threatening the weak and unsuspecting with a mysterious and bloody “end” if there is not immediate cooperation! Papa God is NO BULLY but our warped end-time obsession has us presenting Him as such in a loud, albeit unwitting, way. IT IS TIME TO RE-PRESENT THAT WHICH IS ONLY AND COMPLETELY GOOD NEWS! We have been called to the privilege of believing into and acting out of the value system of His sacrifice.

"All things are possible to those who believe..." (Mark 9:23) means to me that God is looking for a community and a culture of believers who intentionally take on impossibilities with a warrior's heart to, "win for the Lamb that was slain the reward for His sufferings" (the Moravians).

I'd rather fail in the attempt of the miraculous than to succeed at mediocrity.

Firebrand School of Ministry

2008-08-07T09:06:00.000-07:00

September 16, 2008 is the opening day of classes for the Randy Dean Ministries Firebrand School of Ministry. It is a 2 year school and every student in the school will be an assigned intern working under my pastoral care for the duration of the full 2 years. Go back in these blogs and read the blog, “10,000 Firebrands” for the story of God’s leading in this purpose…it has been an exciting and challenging journey.

For an application you can go to our church website at www.lwc1.com and click on the school announcement on the main page. Since we are attempting to keep our costs to a bare minimum as we begin this venture, an individual student can come on board for $75 a month, or $900 a year. Married couples can enroll for $100 a month or $1200 a year. Each student will be responsible for their own living expenses, potential mission’s trips, and textbooks. Since we are brand new with no accreditation we offer no grants, financial assistance or student loans. We are, however, open to anyone interested in underwriting scholarships for students with proven needs.
I promise this: an uprising of spirit and a revolution of Kingdom sized proportions.

The following three core values of the vision will guide us:
1. Generational impartation; what one generation fought for and won will be a starting point for the next generation to build upon and increase.
2. Holy Spirit Conversion; the Baptism of Fire from Jesus Christ. Not based on a doctrine or formula, but rooted in lifestyle and passion.
3. Healing of and through authentic spiritual authority. The full expression of the Kingdom of God will be found in a culture of honor and growing dimensions of humility and obedience.

Firebrand School of Ministry mission is to equip and deploy full time ministers, whose personal core value is, “on earth as it is in heaven” into the full spectrum of life on earth; artists, politicians, entrepreneurs, inventors, home-makers, church workers, and servants of all descriptions. Out of their authentic passion, they will transform the world through the communication and demonstration of the Kingdom of God.

The Old Testament tells the story of Sampson pulling a “firebrand” out of a campfire and lighting the tails of 300 foxes and sending them running through an enemy’s crop land. That’s a wild story and a terrific picture of what my goal is for this school. Our motto is, “If you’ve got ‘em, light ‘em!” 10,000 firebrands lighting 300 equals 3,000,000!

Holy Beast

2008-08-05T11:00:00.000-07:00

I’m tracking a Holy Beast. His footprints and trail are everywhere around me. It’s not so much that He is hiding from me as it is that He is hidden FOR me. In sublime moments here and there I thought we were completely intersected, but He slipped away or more accurately put, I assumed discovery while He sighed, “That’s the porch. I’m in the Great Room”.

For three decades I’ve read two passages of mystery, “Now when they heard this, they were pierced (violently stung) to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brethren, what shall we do?’” (Acts 2:37) and, “While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell (affectionately seized with a violently grasping embrace) upon all those who were listening to the message…and all…the believers…who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out…”(Acts 10:44, 45). In these brilliant word pictures I see that Peter, most likely unwittingly, is unlocking the Kingdom of Heaven and Something, quantitative AND qualitative drops with an unmistakable thump and entire gatherings of people are blessedly attacked and desire no escape.

The truest essence of the language in these passages is that these people were seized, grasped, taken hold of, clutched and clasped and, while it was an affectionate seizure, it was with more or less violence than we might like to think. It was seminal, determining, generative, axiomatic, a point of origin, a fountainhead, a wellspring, a dictum and a command catalyst.

Western sensibilities long to tame this Holy Beast. Like a circus lion, we want it to play with the tamer, roar only on command and send me home with giddy arrogance. It offends our rational democratic pleasure of always wanting to take our time, consider the options, and come back later, after we’ve played the intellectual, to cast a vote against it. Yet, I’ve come to believe that He is eager to write a new book, “How the West Was Won; Again”.

I’m serious about this. There are Keys of the Kingdom for the unlocking of this undomesticated God and if Peter could stumble his way into their usefulness, then I refuse to be denied. In her book, “Teaching a Stone to Talk” Anne Dillard describes my heart perfectly, “Why do we people in churches seem like cheerful brainless tourists on a packaged tour of the Absolute? On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside of the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may awake someday and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return.” She quotes an Hasidic rabbi as refusing to visit a friend the next day by explaining, “How can you ask me to make such a promise? This evening I must pray, ‘Hear O Israel.’ When I say these words, my soul goes out to the utmost rim of life’”.

We are all beckoned to that utmost rim of life, but IN CHRIST, to return with the Hurricane Breath of God to unleash an irresistible Word. I’ve just participated in burying one too many young lives to believe that God does not have an irresistible Answer. Pardon me, but I just heard a Roar just a few meters from where I’m sitting….you can stay where its safe if you’d like, but I’m on my way to be delightfully devoured by a Holy Beast Who longs to be found.

"Ask What You Wish Me to Give You"

2008-07-29T10:28:00.000-07:00

When Solomon was confirmed as the King of Israel after his father David’s death, he offered a thousand sacrifices and later that night, God appeared to him in a dream. First of all, the notion of God appearing in a dream is pretty trippy, but it is right there on page 455 of the Bible. Either we accept this reality or we don’t. And, if we do, we also accept the possibility of God behaving in the same manner today as He did then. To me, Bible knowledge without Bible experience is lame, at best and vain at worst.

In this dream, God says to Solomon, “Ask what you wish me to give you…”. In essence, “What do you want? No caveats, no fine print, no bait and switch. What do you want?” Astonishing.

You can talk all you want to about God’s all knowing capacity to see what Solomon really wanted. We could debate Solomon’s moral weaknesses (and by the way those weaknesses were already present when God offered this blank check) and his eventual downward spiral. Doctrinal experts rush in like a “haz-mat” team to immediately confine God’s behavior here so as to avoid anything messy happening in our time. But none of the above matters to me. I say, if God didn’t want me to want this, He should never have put this story in the Book.

New Testament disciples are called upon and designed to be “kings and priests” (I Peter 2:9; Revelation 1:6) with royal aspirations living in our visions and dreams. Jesus came to be “King of kings” not “King of bums”. If you and I don’t see this we won’t offer a thousand sacrifices as Solomon did the day before he had this outrageous dream and we certainly won’t have the revelation of the possibility of the offer of this dream being our inheritance.

I want my inheritance! Not for squander like the younger son’s error in the parable of the prodigal (Luke 15:11-32), but for investment and fully realized potential as could have been for the older son in that same parable! Do you realize that the older son was equally guilty of wasting the inheritance as was the younger son? The younger son wasted his inheritance with loose living but the older son wasted his inheritance with NO living!

Read it for yourself, the older son was ticked off and separated himself from this significant family party that dad was hosting for the younger son’s return. When the father went out to get his older son he said, “My child, you have always been with me, and all that is mine is yours.” Both selfish harlotry and self righteous resentment will separate you from God’s richest offers.

The extreme generosity of this father suggests that he would have given anything to either son and clearly, on some level, both sons were missing the point! Is it possible that we are still missing the point? “…All that is mine is YOURS…” sounds to me wonderfully familiar to, “Ask what you wish Me to give you”.

What would it look like if we too would offer a thousand royal sacrifices of worship? What would it look like if we would allow the Holy Spirit to lift us to a dream state to realize that our Father is saying to us, “All that is Mine, is YOURS”? What would it look like if we wanted, ONE THING?

Oh…I almost forgot…Solomon asked God to impart to him the full capacity of genuine royalty…that’s how I read it. Lay this template over the story of the prodigal. What if one of the sons in that story had said, “Father, bless me with the full capacity to rule in your house with a heart of genuine royalty that I might increase, enjoy and properly distribute ‘all that is yours’”.

“But seek for His Kingdom, and these things shall be added to you. Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen GLADLY to give you the Kingdom.” Luke 12:31,32

Go ahead….ASK…..I dare you.

Secret Service Reports "Incident" at McCain Rally

2008-07-27T16:08:00.000-07:00

Sources tell us that the secret service agent assigned to Senator John McCain was called away from a local bar to hurry to the side of the presidential candidate at a campaign rally at a community college in Paducah, Kentucky, late last night. Witnesses at the scene have reported that in the middle of the Senator’s speech a man was said to be clapping and cheering “vigorously”.

When Senator McCain’s secret service agent arrived he tells us that he found several audience members surrounding the suspect demanding an explanation for his sudden burst of enthusiasm. Several witnesses complained of “undue excitement” and “a raised heart rate”. Later when this unidentified person was being escorted out of the room by a part time campus security guard he could be heard apologizing and explaining that he had had a second cup of coffee that morning and “wasn’t himself”. One member of the audience humorously commented, "Go ahead, taze him bro". Toxicology tests have not yet confirmed these findings, but little else would explain such behavior.

The official spokesperson for the McCain Campaign promised a thorough review of the Senator’s speeches for any further signs of innovation, inspiration and visionary thought in an effort to avoid similar future outbursts. The Senator himself said, “No one was more surprised than me. Our intra-organizational mantra has been, ‘keep it cool, keep it lame’. We’ve decided to reward our secret service agent with time off for the next week in hopes to have him back fresh and ready for our run through North and South Dakota”.

Meanwhile, Senator Barack Obama expressed his concern and offered a prayer for the safety of his opponent at a campaign stop along the Great China Wall. Several reporters in his entourage were said to be weeping openly.

Senator Obama Cures the Common Cold

2008-07-23T08:34:00.000-07:00

Rumor has it that the presumptive president-elect, Senator Barack Obama, has cured the common cold. His campaign spokesman said this morning that it was too early to comment on this development, but that she was sure it was true.

Media outlets around the world are preparing their responses, however, in order not to offend Senator Obama, they are waiting for him to make his own announcement. To do otherwise would potentially steal his thunder at worst and, at best, hurt his feelings. Medical researchers who have expressed doubts are being urged to show restraint until after the November election. Most media outlets are reporting that this advise is certain to be honored.

On another presumptive president-elect Obama news front, it is also rumored that Senator Obama will be visiting a number of homeless shelters throughout the nation and multiplying fish and loaves to feed the masses. Sources close to the senator are neither denying nor confirming these plans, although one source who asked to remain anonymous said, "This dear man can only do so much at any given time. We must be patient and temper our expectations. Please allow the next leader of the free world some time and space to finish his research on time travel before demanding a solution to homelessness...one step at a time!". One reporter close to this interview was said to be weeping openly.

Finally, on a more humorous note, the Pope has reportedly attempted to contact the Obama Campaign to request an audience. When asked about this, the presumptive president-elect smiled that all knowing, kind grin of his and said, "Please, do I look like I want another preacher around me who could potentially embarrass me?" Laughter abounded, birds sang and a rainbow appeared just over the horizon.

A Roar in the Forest

2008-07-07T13:41:00.000-07:00

I carry in my Bible the tattered notes of a message I preached on January 25, 1989 here at Living Word Chapel in Forest, Wisconsin. (Side note: our mailing address says we are in Emerald but our actual location is Forest. Forest isn’t big enough to merit its own Post Office…for that matter, neither is Emerald since they closed it several years ago…but I digress) Anyway, where was I…?

Oh yes, the tattered notes. The title of the message is, “A Roar in the Forest”. It is based on a passage in Amos 3 that describes a lion’s roar in a forest when it has captured prey. The image is that of God or His people roaring like a lion when an enemy has been seized and neutralized. I spoke prophetically then of this little hamlet in the middle of no-where being a place of the choice of God for an invasion of His Kingdom and His Presence. I’ve carried those notes for 19 years as a reminder to me of God’s precious promise that this “little” place would someday be in the vortex of His mighty roar…that someday is today.

For over 3 full months we have been trembling in awe of a “heaven on earth” outpouring in our rural setting. I have often jokingly told people that I pastor a church of 150 in a town of 15…We’ve reached our city for Jesus, now we’re coming after YOURS. I am frequently amused by the slick church growth pamphlets I receive in the mail that promise me a conference sure to inspire me to “take my city for Jesus”. Hmmm…I suppose we could go after the cows on the other side of the highway…but again, I digress.

On quiet Monday mornings lately I walk across the empty sanctuary and my body just starts to “buzz” from the spiritual energy left over from the day before. The supernatural testimonies of what is happening among us are far too many to list here. For every one that I can recall, ten more come to mind later. It is simply amazing.

I don’t often refer to our podcast web-site but I feel compelled to do so today. Go to www.lwc1.com and click on podcasts. Last Wednesday evening is a sweet sampling of what God is saying and doing in the middle of a cow pasture in western Wisconsin.

I guess since He was born in a barn and laid in a manger, He apparently He enjoys the ambiance.

10,000 Firebrands

2008-06-30T08:25:00.000-07:00

A few years ago God promised me that I would awaken 10,000 firebrand ministers. At first glance I considered that as a broad and general project, to be done along the way and in the midst of my many other projects. After the past several weeks of diving in the “deep end” of the sweetest times I have ever known in God, it is clear that this is a specific project for this very specific time in my life. This fall we are launching a firebrand School of Ministry…our motto…. “If you’ve got ‘em, light em”.

No dates are set, no fees have been established, no hard data on the initial number of student/interns and no official name for this school of ministry. Just this: a word from God. Yep, that’s all, just a clear, thundering “do it” from God. The very minute I set my heart to obey Him, potential students started knocking on my door.
This blog is my first public declaration of this project. I am literally shaking at the prospect; scared to do it, but more terrified of NOT doing it and missing God’s command. Why is such a thing needed? Because this is the summer of the American Awakening. The Holy Spirit is no longer “hovering above the chaos”, He has plunged into the heart of this nation and Kingdom Revival is, IS, IS upon us.

A new countercultural wind is blowing in the Body of Christ. That gale force has been active in me for 30 plus years. A month ago while attending a leadership conference at my new spiritual covering in Redding California we were challenged to ask God for a fresh baptism of fire. The instant I asked, the Spirit of God snatched me by the heart and pulled me up into a vision of the Throne of God. As in the book of Revelation the Throne was in a vortex of a rainbow aura. From around it appeared my parents, my step-dad, Ginger’s grandparents (our spiritual mentors) and behind all of them appeared Smith Wigglesworth and A.A. Allen. Smith had laid hands on Ginger’s grandparents when they received the Holy Spirit and Allen had laid hands on my mother in ’52 and prophesied my birth to follow in ’53.

I became wonderfully aware that my mother (an Iroquois Native American) was in full war dress, dancing like I had never seen her dance before. She let out a magnificent war cry (on earth, she prayed me out of darkness and into the Kingdom). Behind her I saw an image of what I recognized to be an Iroquois Healing Hut. Though they were more pantheistic than any thing else, they had an instinctive echo in them of the True and Living God who is the “God who heals us”. Suddenly from that hut and from Smith and Allen something like lightening shot out and into me. God spoke to me in that instant and said, “You’ve faithfully communicated the Kingdom for 25 years…from this day forward you will demonstrate the Kingdom in Healing power”. I’ve been smoldering ever since…..

This school of ministry will not be a place of knowledge alone, but a place of impartation. We will not be reaction to the current Christian culture fixated too often on “going to heaven”, however we will desperately, passionately and “with loud crying and tears” (Hebrews 5:7) seek to create a Kingdom Culture with a laser like focus on bringing heaven to earth.

Interested?

Proceed with Caution: Old Man Dreaming Ahead

2008-06-24T16:07:00.000-07:00

Joel 2 says that when the Holy Spirit gets His way, even old men have dreams. I used to read that and think in strict categorical terms: Young men get visions…check. Old men get dreams…check. I hope you get the point. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Last week I had the distinct privilege to speak at Youth Alive Camp in Osceola, Wisconsin. The theme God gave me was; “Dream-Why Not?” It was an awesome time of releasing these students to be free to SEE. Old Testament prophets were sometimes called “seers”, because they had a transcendent capacity to look into the heavens and see God’s resources and call it down to the earth. Holy Spirit dreaming is seeing “on earth as it is in heaven”.

Joel 2 also says that when the Spirit is truly falling on us that our sons and daughters CAN SEE and they prophecy! The students at this camp ended up in a torrential outpouring of dreams! It was Psalm 126:1 coming to pass, “When the Lord brought back the captive ones…we were like those who dream”.

Follow me carefully now: I was the “old man” at that camp. They were the sons and daughters. I prophesied, they dreamed. That’s not categorical… it’s a transcending weaving in and out and back and forth as the Spirit is allowed to get BIG. I liken it this way: as the Spirit rises in us He drives our cynical, wooden, rigidity up and out. You know it’s the outrageous power of the Holy Spirit at work when the most likely people among us to be injured by disappointments and frustration are set free of their unholy fixation on the glorious past and the miserable present AND NOW THEY DREAM!

Another Kingdom principle we witnessed last week is hidden in this Joel 2 treasure chest as well. An old man dreamed out loud and that released sons and daughters to prophesy! How many times have we heard the old song and dance, “what’s wrong with kids these days?” I’ll tell you what’s wrong with them—the older generation keeps holding the Holy Spirit in check and the dreams we ought to be releasing for the healing of our sons and daughters is cheating them of their Kingdom inheritance.

I witnessed it first hand last week. Once the spiritual air around these students was cleared with the Word of an old man dreaming, these youth could SEE and became SEERS. When I prophesied they dreamed, when I dreamed they prophesied and the Holy Spirit lived His character among us, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty”.

Three weeks ago on a Wednesday evening service I was compelled by the Spirit to prophesy that this summer is the summer of America’s Awakening. Sometimes prophesy is a confirming tool and sometimes prophesy is a “make it happen” sledge hammer. I am welding the latter. Take caution around me these days, I’m in a mood. My dreams are overwhelming me, my eyes have seen the glory. Whether you be young or old and your vision is wilted, I release upon you NOW an all out attack of the Holy Spirit.
I close with this. Here’s an irony. I fought some kind of sickness all week at camp last week. A cold, allergies, sinus infection….what ever it was, I was miserable….physically. Now that I’m home and I’ve had an opportunity to call my doctor, it appears I have an infection not unlike “pink eye”. Hmmm, do you think there’s an analogy here? Is it possible that the prince of darkness (yet another impediment to seeing) knew that he must distract an old man in his divine assignment to impart vision to a new generation?

Hmmm….where’s my sledge hammer…..

"I Just Feel So Dry"

2008-05-21T09:15:00.000-07:00

The following will be more of a blook than a blog. If you are one of my faithful readers and you are more accustomed to a quick read, such will not be the case here. You may have to take this in some paced plan of reading. No apologies; I have good news here.

My spiritual journey of late has taken me through a wide range of lessons, emotions and, ultimately, sweet, sweet growth. I’d like very much to relate what’s been trusted to me and, if you’ll have it, make it yours. Submission to someone who has gained wisdom from God will save years, even decades for the recipient. Watchman Nee once said, in essence, we can lengthen our lives by buying the years of someone whose spiritual authority is authentic. If that doesn’t sound humble enough for you, then I offer this; I’ve always seen myself as one of God’s crash test dummies. If you just long to be thrown into walls and waste time picking up the pieces go ahead…you can quite literally knock yourself out. Or, I offer you my test results.

Several months ago I wrote a blog entitled, “Hello. My Name is Truth”. For the sake of my purposes today I’d like to ask you to revisit these words;
“Truth will wreck you. It will set you right side up is an upside down world. Truth will strip you of every selfish notion devised by your past, your pains, your problems, your personality, your preferences, your possesiveness, your poverty, your personality, your prosperity, your pity, your power, your perfectionism, your performance, your peers, your paralysis, your predespositions, your prudishness, your put-ons, your papa and your paranoia.

Truth will meet you head-on with no intention of slowing down or dodging you. It's reality will be like headlights frozen on high-beam bearing down on you in it's own lane, challenging you to awaken to the reality that you are in the wrong lane. As a matter of fact, Truth won't even ‘honk’. That sound you hear is your adrenalized heart-beating.

Truth, while not forgiving in itself, will lead you to forgiveness. Truth is a living power, a driving rain storm, a relentless blizzard and a sunshine drenched perfect day. Jesus said, ‘I AM the Truth....’. Truth walks. Truth talks. Truth laughs. Truth weeps. Truth bleeds. Truth will die with every intention of living larger later.

Truth will set you free, not in spite of these things, but BECAUSE of these things. Truth heals us when we accept the stark fact that we don't know it. Truth delivers us when we crawl across the gravel of life, reach our bleeding fingers toward its hem and snatch it hard to our weeping face and say in our heart, ‘If I can just touch the edge of Truth I will be free’.”

Someone once said, “the truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable”. The length of the season of misery is entirely up to us. If we resist it, if we try to negotiate with it and even if we acknowledge it but postpone our cooperation with it until a more convenient time, the misery is ours and the freedom waits.

Here’s a Truth; Psalm 68:5,6 says, “A Father of the fatherless and a judge for the widows, is God in His holy habitation. God makes a home for the lonely; He leads out the prisoners into prosperity, only the rebellious dwell in a parched land”. The Amplified Version of verse 6 says, “God places the solitary in families…”.

Note the clear description of God’s character which anchors Him in His purposes, plans and procedures. Everything God does flows out of His enthroned character. Since He is a perfect Father, He acts in our lives AS a father to shepherd us into families and out of solitude. When He sees loneliness, He acts precipitously to create a home, a covering and a protective productive environment to drive the loneliness far from our experience. Why? To create the hot-house for our best human potential.

Even if I have done something worthy of imprisonment, God is acting just outside my line of sight arranging a scenario for my prosperity if I will dare to cooperate. I can most certainly choose to throw in the towel and spend my remaining days crying about how “the man” put me down and I will most certainly die with an impoverished heart. Or I can come out of whatever prison I’ve been in, lean hard on the enthroned character of God and discover new treasure and prosperity for my soul.

But it’s the last part of Psalm 68:6 that can really shake us up; “…only the rebellious dwell in a parched land”. Ouch! Do you see what I see? Since God’s character will only allow Him to be Good and out of that Goodness He is creating a home, a covering and a protective productive environment for my highest and best human potential then the only thing that could put me in a parched dead place is my own rebellion to Him.

Now here’s the punch-line of this whole matter; God’s Kingdom Transcendency functions at its highest supremacy in the context of the anointed corporate family. That’s called covering. When I am in a covering, I am submitted to the greater purposes, plans and procedures of God’s greater power and presence. When I am separate from covering I am subject to the parched and withering effects of standing alone in the wind and heat. In a covering I am consistently available to the natural and supernatural resources gathered by a family made for me by God’s enthroned character. It’s impossible to be dried out in that climate! In fact, another Psalm (133) says that when spiritual siblings dwell (consistently hang together) in unity (passionate purpose) it is like the dew of Hermon coming on the mountains of Zion and God COMMANDS a blessing there! Where God COMMANDS blessings, you don’t have to ask!

If I’m parched then I need to return to the last place I remember being watered. For me, that would be in a spirit anointed covering family. But to be perfectly honest, I cannot remember the last time I felt parched….no brag, just fact. Why is that, you might ask? Because I refuse to live outside of the atmosphere of God’s character which is always preparing the environment of a covering home creating the hot-house for my highest and best.

Many of you know that my wife Ginger and I recently traveled to Redding California for a Leadership Advance at Bethel Church. This is my 2nd trip there in the last 7 months. What you might not know is that we also went there to finalize our new relationship with them for covering and ordination. We have spent the past 2 years looking into what God is doing through Pastor Bill Johnson and the Bethel tribe. I’ve read countless books and articles by them, listened to hundreds of hours of teaching, talked with one of the gentlemen who is a part of their apostolic team and furiously sought the Face of the Father for discernment and leading. When we arrived, Bill said to the conference, “This whole week is going to be about impartation” and it was. Session after session was totally disrupted by the raw power of God coming in the room and owning us.

The end result is that our church and Ginger and I are now a part of a Kingdom Family that goes by the name of Global Legacy (the church networking arm of Bethel). We have entered into this covering with more joy than I can adequately express with the English language. I’ve told many people that the DNA match is perfect and the atmosphere of Heaven’s Kingdom is increasing in us and around us exponentially. The atmosphere of our church is tangibly ALIVE and spiritually drenched! We’re not praying for revival, we are in one and the Kingdom of God is present here with power! Our prayer now is for stewardship of this work to spread through time and space as it is passed to the next generation for multiplication of its efficacy and influence.

The reason we began this search is that where we have been in a family of covering for 25 years has ceased to be able to function in that capacity. I will continue to follow the path of the honorable sons of Noah who backed into the bedroom to discreetly cover the embarrassment of their dad (Genesis 9:23) as it relates to this matter. It is only germane to the subject to say the time had come for us to follow God’s character into this new tribe.

Here’s the specific teachable moment of this blook/blog. If you are and have been parched for some definable length of time, ask yourself; “Am I cooperating with the precipitous nature of God’s desire to cover me with spiritual family?”

Even if you are physically in a church you might be rebelling against what God is trying to do on your behalf in the context of that tribe. The result is that dry dearth all around you. End the rebellion and dive into the deep end of what God is doing in your spiritual family.

Or, you might be staying in a “church” where God has not specifically planted you. Your thirst is calling you out of that wilderness. “Oh, but brother….God has called me to the wilderness”. There are 2 types of wildernesses in scripture: one was the result of rebellion where a few days journey turned into 40 years of wandering. If that’s your wilderness…for crying out loud REPENT and get out of there! The other wilderness lasted for 40 DAYS and ended in a reverberating triumph over the devil when Jesus stepped forward into His destiny. If your “wilderness” has lasted longer than 40 DAYS your victory over the devil is overdue…get a Word from God, and put darkness under your feet as you walk out of the wilderness and into your destiny.

It is impossible to be dry for more than a few days at a time if I’m properly positioned in the spiritually covering family that the nature and character of God has drawn me into. Here is yet another Psalm (chapter one) that I will paraphrase and end this with; “Blessed is the person who has had an awakening of heart, soul and mind to end relationships that just suck the life out of them without any return or end in sight. That person has had the Spirit’s good sense to be delighted with God’s nature and character which will plants them in river enriched soil that supernaturally makes them like the most glorious tree you have ever imagined with leaves as big as elephant ears and greener than Al Gore. Everything they touch flourishes, thrives and prospers because they are loaded with an intrinsic value that radiates out from them and brings value to their surroundings.”

Raise the Dead

2008-04-23T09:18:00.000-07:00

What is it about Jesus and His claims that just push our buttons? What is it about His Words, (Matthew 10:8) “…heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons…” that simply and flat out make us uncomfortable? Why do these outrageous statements even need to be addressed? WHY? Because, like the mountain to the climber, it is there.

Jesus speaks to us from His own native soil, Heaven’s Kingdom. We are the foreigners. His is the native tongue and it is our obligation, if we have any desire at all to function even nominally in the Kingdom of God, to lean into His lingua franca and once and for all to be truly enlightened.

Are we terrified that we might learn something that would steal us away from our own agendas? Are we so currently spiritually vibrant and attractive that there is simply no room for any more of God’s beauties to be seen in us? Has a watching world around us been swept up in a trembling swoon at the sheer magnitude of the goodness of God at work within us? (Jeremiah 33:3 & 9)

Jesus’ command from the aforementioned reference in Matthew is concluded with, “…freely you received, freely give.” Internal splendor can become external health for the benefit of those in need.

As I observe the generalized “us”, the collective bin of believers in 2008 I hear the Holy Spirit shouting, “You can not regain externally what you’ve lost internally. You can not restore material systems before you reclaim true spiritual power. You can not win spiritual domain swinging humanistic weapons. You can not regain through political clout what you’ve lost in spiritual clarity. Healing the sick, raising the dead, cleansing the lepers and casting out demons is irretrievably rooted in freely receiving that you may freely give! Like baby birds in a nest, learn to receive Heaven’s Kingdom with Heaven’s King in a saturated certainty throughout all of your internal realities. I have a Niagara of Life awaiting channels for release. You have but to unmercifully slay stunted human reasoning and be resurrected to a revolution of REAL LIFE!”

The Sound of Resurrection

2008-04-09T09:34:00.000-07:00

Luke 4:31-37 and 43 is a compelling narrative that is wrapped around the themes of voice, message and authority. “And they were amazed at His (Jesus) teaching, for His message was with authority.” Then, Luke accounts that a demon possessed man cried out with a loud voice, “Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” When you think about it, this is a peculiar picture!

Notice that the demon does not say anything necessarily bad or wrong. Jesus DID come to destroy the works of the devil. Jesus was and IS the Holy One of God, but Jesus doesn’t want to let this critter occupy the air waves any more than the brief moment it grabs. In fact, Jesus puts a Word on him, “Be quiet and come out of him! And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of him without doing him any harm.” And Luke says that even more amazement came on the crowd and, “they began discussing with one another saying, ‘What is this message? For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.’”

Please allow me to take some pains to list what we see here:
1. Jesus puts authority in the air; the greek word for authority here means force, liberty, freedom, mastery, capacity, influence, jurisdiction and a right to enforce. I would call it a field of transcendent supremacy.
2. Demons know church-speak. They love to fill rooms with empty, vacant lifeless religious sounds. Swearing, drooling and threatening are too obvious.
3. The question pregnant with purpose is “What is this message? For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.”
4. Luke 4:43 answers the above question in the Words of Jesus; “I must preach the kingdom of God….for I was sent for this purpose.”

Psalm 29 says that God’s Voice thunders and is majestic. It hews out flames of fire, shakes wildernesses and makes nations skip like frightened calves when we see that He speaks as the King of Infinity. When Jesus spoke He put a new jurisdiction into the atmosphere around Him. His Voice was an affidavit and a warrant from Heaven’s Kingdom. He put God’s jurisdiction in the environment and even if you did not understand Him, you knew you must hear more.

Remember when Jesus freaked out the well fed crowd in John 6? “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves.” Yikes! Talk about a sound bite (no pun intended) that could be used against you! After the thousands left Jesus to find a better preacher, He said to His remaining disciples, if you don’t “get” that, you won’t “get” what’s coming; because, “My Words are Spirit and are Life.”

When Jesus spoke He put a new jurisdiction into the atmosphere around Him. His Voice was an affidavit and a warrant from Heaven’s Kingdom. He put God’s jurisdiction in the environment and even if you did not understand Him, you knew you must hear more. Now, you want to read something that will either bless you or freak you out some more? Luke 10:16 says, “The one who listens to you listens to Me, and the one who rejects you rejects Me…”.

I simply MUST have that Voice! I refuse to fill rooms with vacant religious sounds that leave people unchanged and dominated by the poisons of our culture.

I simply MUST be one whose voice is a carrier of that Voice. I am on this planet to be His warrant officer; the bearer of the King’s Jurisdiction that arrests the darkness, puts it out of commission and fills the atmosphere with “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven.” And I simply MUST find others who cry out for this mantle, this clothing that can be touched for the healing of those who say in their hearts, “When I touch this, I AM HEALED!”

Reflections of an Election

2008-04-02T09:13:00.000-07:00

I just won a very close election to my 6th term on a public school board of education. How close, you ask? 14 votes close and two of those 14 were mine and, I hope, my wife’s. That’s razor thin, but as they say in sports, a “w” is a “w”.

For weeks people have been asking me, “What do think about this election?” My answer has been consistently, “Either way I’ll win. If I lose, I get back bus loads of time to be with my wife and family, finish my book, pastor my church and slip some time off in there somewhere. If I win, well, I win.” But a strange thing happened to me on the way to the results; I started getting nervous about the outcome.

In the past the district administrator calls me late after he’s had time to certify the election results. Last night was no different. But “late” started getting really late. My mind said, “You’ve lost! They just don’t want to call you because they feel sorry for you.” When the phone finally rang I took a deep breath and tried to act calm (which was dumb, seeing as how my wife and dog were the only ones around to see me) and I answered the call like I didn’t know who was calling.

“Hey Randy…..do you want the good news or the bad news?” Now, if I say I want the good news it sounds greedy BUT if the good news is that I lost (remember, I’ve told everyone that no matter what, I win) I am suddenly in need of sounding cheerful when I’m not. Anyway, I’m not even sure how I answered.

“Well, I’ll give you the bad news first….you’re back on for another 3 years.” I suppressed an “ALL RIGHT! That’s what I’m talkin’ about!”, and muttered an “aw shucks…well, OK”. When I laid down to go to sleep…..I couldn’t. My brain was ON. What’s up?

I’d like to tell you something really profound and spiritual sounding. Can’t do it. It came down to this; I hate losing and deep inside I was more wound up about the possibility losing this election than I had been willing to admit.

Which brings me to a teachable moment in this blog. Why am I on this board of education to begin with? To serve and demonstrate the attractive value system of God’s Kingdom in Christ. I’m not there, as some raging fundamentalist to promote creationism or intelligent design. I’m not there to protect the school from the political agenda of the “left”. I’m there to serve humans in love. The final and only valuable proof of a Creator and His intelligent design is our life, not curriculum. If we don’t live what we teach, then we are teaching something else.

I'm there to authentically love people on the “left” and the “right” and be the Voice of Christ when the voices of acrimony and hate subject educational processes to anybody’s political agenda. On the opposite side of the spectrum I’ve found that hate knows no political boundary; both sides can hate equally from behind their masks of sincerity.

I’m there to serve and demonstrate the attractive value system of God’s Kingdom in Christ. I’ve learned that God can be legally involved in public schools when His people carry Him in the front doors with a heart to love, even our enemies, perceived or otherwise.

I’ve learned that I’ll be asked to pray when I stop demanding to pray. I’ve learned that I’ll be asked to quote scripture when I stop threatening to use scripture.

I’ve learned that many political strategies will fail, but that love never fails. And since I hate losing and I enjoy winning, I think I’ll stick to the winning strategy of Kingdom living and loving.

Thank you, God, for 14 votes.

Senator Barack Obama's Church; Part II

2008-03-25T13:07:00.000-07:00

Well, I stand by what I said back in January about the conspiracy theory ideas that were rampant about Barack Obama and his church. Now, however, we have crossed beyond conspiracy theories into the realities of what the good senator's pastor has stated loud and proud.

But before I go any further, I want some things to be understood. I don't hold Senator Obama's pastor any more or less culpable than I do any number of the current batch of pastors, of all races, who have done enormous harm to the knowledge of God's true character through their careless statements. For instance, if we declare that God has allowed deadly judgment to fall upon America because of the legality of abortions, haven't we massively muddied the waters? God is killing people because we have killed babies? I hope I don't need to explain the insanity and confusion of that contradiction.

So, Senator Obama's pastor has declared that America did not "blink" when we decided to bomb Japan. Hmmmmmmm....no bible scholar needed for that ignorance of history. President Truman agonized over the stark reality that a land invasion of Japan would likely cost a million lives, many of whom would be civilian. Japan made it abundantly clear that surrender was not an option. At Iwo Jima, our first invasion of Japanese territory, their strategy was to spill as much blood, in as gruesome a manner as possible so that an invasion of their mainland would be considered out of the question. On that small island, human loss on both sides in just a matter of weeks, was three times what we have suffered in Iraq in 5 years. I think Truman's decision was at least a well documented historic "blink".

**(March 29th correction: deaths on both sides of the battle for Iwo Jima were actually higher than my first recollection noted above. Total battle deaths in the approximate 10 weeks of fighting for this tiny island were 27,000! Over 20,000 Japanese soldiers died and 6800 American Marines died in just 8 to 10 weeks. Think about it; we've lost 4000 troops in Iraq in 5 years. Back then we lost 6800 men in a little more than 2 months, and that was considered a victory).**

More concerning to me than that, however, is that Senator Obama's pastor said, "God bless America? No, God d___ America" Why? For our racial sins. (Note: the concept of putting God at the prefix of the "d" word in print is just not in me...I know, I thought it and you probably thought it, but I just can't bring myself to PRINT it).

Again I say, hmmmmmmmmmmm. As evil as racism is, God is no longer in the business of damning anyone, anywhere for any reason. Isaiah 53:11 says that our Father has placed upon His Son the evil of us all, and HE IS SATISFIED.

It is amazing to me how stuck in the Old Testament we are in our need for God to be mad. Especially when we want Him to be mad at stuff we are mad about. The problem is, Jesus fulfilled the demand for Old Testament judgment, fulfilled the law and the prophets AND satisfied God so that now....brace yourselves....this is going to get deep.....

God so loved the world that He sent His only Son...NOT TO JUDGE THE WORLD, but that the world should be saved. This is in an obscure little passage in John 3. Much read and seldom embraced especially when we need God to be mad at someone we don't like. Some TV preachers did not like some folks in New Orleans and a hurricane filled their need for God to look just like them and judge.

As much as we might not like certain behaviors it is illegal to create God in our own image to validate our own bias. God has been forever beautifully painted in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. Pastor Bill Johnson of Redding California says, "Only Jesus is perfect theology". Did Jesus ever send a storm on anyone? Did Jesus have a single "damn" in His vocabulary for Rome?

No....but He did have a few, "woes" for strict, uptight, judgmental religious bigots. Why a woe? Woe be to those who distort the image of the Father and frighten sinners away from the possibility of discovering that God is ONLY good.

One last note: Senator Obama has said he did not know his pastor had said these things. If someone who has been one of my sheep for 20 years did not know me any better than that, I would be disappointed, regardless of whether they could quote me word for word or not. But, I will hand to Senator Obama on another note: he refused to disconnect himself from his pastor, agree or disagree. I like that kind of loyality.

Grandbaby #2!

2008-03-17T10:11:00.000-07:00

Ginger and I are proud grandparents of yet another perfect child. Libby and Darren had a second little girl last Friday. Her name is Ayla Ghisette. Ayla is an Irish Celtic derivative of my mother's name, Helen. So, since Ayla also has the look of a Native American baby (my mother's heritage) and since my dad was Irish, this child already owns a wonderful place in my heart! For pictures, check out www.myspace.com/pastorrandydean .

The Resurrection Revolution

2008-03-11T11:37:00.000-07:00

Matthew 5:38-48 is a mystery passage of epic proportions. Is Jesus suggesting that His followers become perpetual victims incapable of feeling pain? Or, as is His usual mode of instruction, is He pressing us to a higher dimension of Kingdom understanding?

In the middle of all the slapping, suing, slandering mess of modern culture, Jesus has called out for a new kind of human race. So determined is He to have this become a reality, He became the Seed planted in the earth for a birth of a Resurrection Race, a Resurrection Insurrection and a Resurrection Revolution.

His own trial, torture and death penalty became this Message: all forms of insult, offense, abuse, mockery, robbery, injustice, malfeasance, maltreatment, malpractice, malfunction, violation, injury, trauma, and any all effects of any and all wrongdoing are now subject to the Resurrection Revolution! Jesus not only turned His cheek, He supplied every square inch of His body to fully provide a new kind of life for us.

New creation is formed for response to God, not reaction to life. The first breath taken by Adam and Eve was response to God; their eyes flew open and the life’s initiation was full in the face of God. When the last Adam, Christ laid in the tomb, the same breath of God passed through solid rock and, by the Spirit blasted the same life giving air into every molecule of Jesus’ tortured body. From there forward, everything we hope to be is found in response to Him and His Face looking full into ours.

The Revolution has begun; not in clean and pretty church services, but in bloodied streets of sacrificial love. This Revolution crushes the opposition by means of the opposition’s own strength ~ death, in any and all of its hideous forms. Resurrection is an insurrection irrepressible in this world of revenge. It shouts that transcendent love is the final strategy of the Kingdom of God and the greatest unused power of the Church.

Cheeks and Miles to Spare

2008-03-03T09:29:00.000-08:00

I am bowed to a transcendent supremacy. The Kingdom of God is within me and profoundly above me. The life I've discovered in this other world has transformed every layer of my existence.

The sting of your hand on my cheek will not determine the priorities of my life. It will not determine my “feelings”. In fact, it may so ignite me in seeing Jesus standing at the right Hand of God that I may turn the other cheek for more inspiration. A slap potentially leads me beyond myself.

We are created for response to God, not reaction to life. The first breath taken by Adam and Eve was response to God. Their eyes flew open and the life's initiation was full in the Face of God. From there forward, everything we hope to be must be found in response to Him and His Face looking into ours.

If I am sued and I live in the Kingdom, I respond to God alone and not in a reaction to the court action. If I am bowed to the transcendent supremacy of my King and the law of the land demands an unfair mile out of me, I'll reach into the energy of Heaven and give a second mile out my supernatural resources. If my life is lived with the breathing of My Father giving me vitality and energy then no matter what injustice pukes at my feet, it will fail to distract me from my response to Heaven's Face.

Jesus' immortal and sometimes maddening Words in Matthew 5 (turn the other cheek, etc.) come to life for me when I conclude them, as He did, with, "You are to be perfect as your Father in Heaven is Perfect." He lives ABOVE it all and I have the massive privilege to join Him in living ABOVE it all, even if blood is dripping off my chin.

Have you ever read John 3 before and beyond verse 16? In verse 13 Jesus said, and this is the RDV (Randy Dean Version); "No one has successfully to date made the journey back and forth into heaven and back to earth except Me. In fact, as you look at Me now...I'm living in both places simultaneously." Stinkin' cool, is what that is. He wants to show us how to live in both places at once. That's really what being born again is all about...Kingdom "Jumpers".

Remember Deacon Stephen in Acts? As he is on earth, being murdered for his faith, he sees the Perfection of Heaven, with Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father. Folks, this isn't some weird lifestyle exclusively reserved for people who wear bath robes and sandals. This is supposed to be genuine everyday Christianity.

We aren't being called to live some meager, white-knuckled "niceness". This is an abundant life with cheeks and miles to spare! IF, and I emphasize, IF you live bowed to this transcendent supremacy; The Kingdom of God.(For more inspiration on this topic read Watchman Nee's book, "Not I But Christ", or visit www.lwc1.mypodcast.com)

Heads On Chickens Part II

2008-02-26T08:45:00.000-08:00

Jesus said, flat out, “Therefore, you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). While you would like to think that a statement that straight forward is pretty hard to dodge, the fact is that most of us have and do. I’ve sat through more than a few sermons that labored to dumb this down and most of them have left me with the sense that I just have to try harder to be a good boy.

That’s not what Jesus is getting at. Our Father in heaven is not a dysfunctional daddy screaming at us from the sidelines of the game to run faster so he can feel better about his own shortcomings when he was a student athlete. What He IS doing is to invite us to join Him in heavenly places and to live from the prophetic “amen” He enjoys.

Leading up to Jesus’ dare to be perfect, He listed a variety of human conditions which, when left to our own resources, we know how to navigate. You punch me, I punch you. You hate me, I hate you. You mistreat me, I mistreat you. Then when the wind is blowing the ashes of our fighting fire with fire, we cry and ask God to fix the mess. In a sense, He is asking us, “How’s that working for you?”.

But His answer is not to turn us in on ourselves. That’s the problem to start with anyway! He dares us to be risen to heavenly places and to live from the perfection of the Father’s Kingdom of Heaven. Perfect here means to live in and see and know the prophetic conclusion of a matter. To experience the “amen” and the “I AM”.

God is right now living in His Kingdom of Absolute Perfection. The Prophetic Conclusion is already giving Him massive delight. He lives in that quality and He would like for us to join Him. To live any other way is to live out of the scraps of our own resources.

This is why we should not pray the problems but prophesy the solutions. This is why He taught us to pray, “THY Kingdom COME, THY WILL be DONE on earth, AS IT IS IN HEAVEN”. We pray from heaven TO earth so that our view is PERFECT. Otherwise we are telling God about how we’ve been lied on, cheated on, beat on, hated on, country songed on, bluesed on, hipped hopped on, and just generally rocked on by bad people.

I don’t know how to put this gently, so I’ll say it in the full context of Matthew 5:38-48 and the Words of Jesus; do you just want to cry and whine about your real and imagined injustices or would you like to live the highest quality of life available to humankind and delight yourself in a banquet table set in the presence of your enemies?

Heads ON or heads OFF, chicken little?

Like Chickens With Their Heads ON

2008-02-25T08:00:00.000-08:00

My 7th grade Literature teacher, Miss Ross, made me memorize Rudyard Kipling's poem, "IF" and I fumed. Like most 7th graders I had no clue what this stupid assignment had to do with "real life". The opening line says, "If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you...".

I love this poem now. It only took 40 years of real life to learn to appreciate it. In fact I started a new series of messages with the deeply insightful title, "Chickens with their heads ON" inspired, in part, by Miss Ross and Mr. Kipling. (Don't forget the free podcasts a our church web site; www.lwc1.com).

Jesus gave an unblinking outrageous charge when He said, "Therefore, you are to be perfect, as Your Heavenly Father is perfect". My version of this is, "Hey,all you chickens in the barnyard! How's this 'running around like chickens with your heads cut off' working for you? Try this; while the axe is swinging, you be the chicken who keeps his head ON. You'll stand head and shoulders above the crowd".

Read Matthew 5:38-48 with some serious reflection and meditation. Jesus is shouting into the empty cavern of Jewish religious hard heartedness that wants to give Rome some lessons on morality. Yes, I know we are all different now. Instead of the empty cavern of Jewish hard heartedness now it the empty cavern of Christian hard heartedness. It's totally different...now that we've put the Name of Jesus on our sin.

Jesus came to lead the world into the greatest Spiritual Revolution and its potential is so vast, deep and wide that it still has not reached its possibilities. How vast? PERFECTION IS ITS ONLY STANDARD. And not just any perfection, but Heavenly Perfection. Not the perfection we are vainly waiting to be granted IN heaven when we get there, but a nitty gritty, punch me in the face on earth and you'll get a blast of heaven's perfect Father living in me.

Alanis Morrisset wrote the song, "Perfect" some years ago that gives a contrast to what I am NOT saying here; "Be a good boy, try a little harder. You've got to measure up and make me prouder...be a good girl, you've gotta try a little harder. That simply wasn't good enough to make us proud. I'll live through you. I'll make you what I never was...". Our Father's perfection is not this sick version. His perfection is the substance of His Heavenly Kingdom Life and the quality of His transcendent supremacy which He longs to generously pour into us when we decide that "trying harder to be good boys and girls" is vain at best, and self-righteous at worst.

The greek word for perfect is, "teleios" and it means completeness, the conclusion of an act or state of being, the end prophetic result. God lives in His own conclusions, He is in a constant state of the prophetic AMEN. There are no lose ends, no unresolved conflicts, no injustices left to right, no matters left for discussion, no unanswered questions, no incomplete statements, nothing left hanging "out there", nothing to discuss and nothing unfinished....HE LIVES IN THAT HIGH LEVEL OF THE QUALITY OF HIS OWN LIFE.....where do we live?

Jesus did not write a new law to be performed in a dead state of religious routine. He is baiting humanity out of a low life existence dependant on our own discipline to be "good" and into the highest dimension of The Life, radically immersed in Heaven's irreplacable energy and love. In fact, in Matthew 5:45 He says this is the only path to becoming the sons and daughters of God.

When the book of Ephesians says that we are seated in Heavenly Places in Christ, it is not an invitation to "feel" good about the symbolism of being "saved". It's a transcending reality for the Believer to be "other" than the chickens running around the barnyard separated from their heads! God's Perfection is The Quality of His Kingdom being offered for those who those who hunger for Life that looks, smells, talks, walks and IS the Life of Jesus Christ invested, FOR REAL, in us. Smash me in the face and the Life of the Spirit pours out of me and the blood on your knuckles is God's blood. Sue me, curse me, use me under false pretences and God gets bigger through me. Hate me and the Love of God grows in me and through me.

This is the Revolution of Jesus and this is the hour for the world to see the true face of God in sons and daughters of the Revolution.

Lit and Lovin' It

2008-02-18T14:06:00.000-08:00

I just arrived back home from a 10 day trip to Valles, Mexico. Valles is a true to the soul of Mexico city of about 400,000 8 hours drive south of the border. A family from our church has been down there for 22 years and I visit them annually.

Missions trips aren't supposed to be this much fun. Oh, we worked, that's for sure. There was the standard stuff we do every year of working on the church building (you can see the building by going to our church web site www.lwc1.com and click on the mission's link), but this year we added a new feature which I hope will be a standard for the years to come. Darren, my son in law and assistant pastor, and I went down a few days ahead of our team to conduct a pastor's conference in a village just east of Valles. Then, after that 2 and half day conference we conducted a leadership conference with the 30 key leaders of the 2 city churches.

When you count the one 5 hour session I held at the city churches along with the evening services after the pastor's conference, I had the privilege of preaching and teaching 13 times in 6 days. That does not include the mandatory follow up altar prayer services that these precious people insist on having. I think I counted prophesying and specifically praying with over 200 people. But I kid you not, I have not had that much fun in a very long time. Like I said, mission's trips are not supposed to be this much fun….I almost feel guilty….almost, but…..there……now I'm over it.

A couple times out in the village a demon possessed couple showed up to disrupt the services. Weird stuff, but Darren and I compared notes on how God through His Kingdom in us just overwhelmed the darkness. This couple was not interested in any freedom at that time, but regardless, the freak show they wanted to bring with them was sent packing.

I don't have the time or space here to relate everything that happened but I want to leave one significant thought with you. In Psalms 16:11 and 36:8 we are told that God's presence, right hand and His river are places of joy, pleasure, delights and life. This past 2 weeks of grueling schedule, Mexican highways and mountain trails has reminded me that I can serve Him out of a limitless bounty if I keep myself in the deep end of the Presence Pool of God the Father, Jesus my King/Friend and the Great Adventurer, the Holy Spirit.

I'm lit and lovin' it; what's next?

Senator Barack Obama's Church

2008-01-15T09:45:00.000-08:00

I just got one of those mass emails that, in essence, says, "Be afraid! Barack Obama is a front for an evil sinister conspiracy, etc, etc, etc." I have probably made a mistake in answering it, but it came to my church and several people in my church, so I took the chance....I can feel my email box bloating even as I speak. If you are not familiar with this current attempt to scare people with almost, but not quite nearly, half truths, go to www.truthorfiction.com. and you'll find the basis for this misery. Anyway, I thought I should expand my potential to offend by including these thoughts in my blog.....enjoy, throw stones, or...whatever.

I have thought and re-thought whether or not I should respond to this.....I will respond and then I might regret it.....but I will take the chance because I want sanity, fair-mindedness and the truly Good News of the Kingdom of God to win over fear and half truths. The church needs an extreme makeover and get rid of its harsh, angry, finger-pointing attitude. Let each one examine his or her own work and then they will have reason for boasting in regard to themselves alone, and not in regard to another (Gal.6:4).

To start with, go to www.truthorfiction.com and read their take on this email about Senator Obama's church. It's quoted word for word and they address the truth and the fiction involved.

Next, how is a church committed to Africa any different than the Swedish Lutherans, the German Lutherans, the Greek Orthodox Church, the Russian Orthodox Church, the Korean Methodist Church, the various Latino denominations, or even the ROMAN Catholic Church? Don't misunderstand my question here....I believe that any racial dividing of the Body of Christ is unhealthy. Someone once said that the most segregated hour in America is Sunday morning church services...and that's wrong. But its far from some sinister conspiracy...its just ignorant.

There are thousands of church web sites that might not give a specific reference to America...that's no reason for panic or fear mongering or suggesting that something evil is lurking behind it. To pin Senator Obama into a corner because his church does not mention America on its web site is totally outrageous. Disagree with his politics all you want to! But don't bring arguments like this into the public debate because it only makes Christianity look bad.

I don't agree with Senator Obama's politics. I don't think he is qualified to be president. If I was on a hiring committee to interview people who were applying for the job, I would look at his resume and say, "Come back another time when we can see some experience". I wouldn't hire a contractor to build a new house who had a couple years of on the job experience and I won't hire a leader of the free world who is not tested and proven. But this matter of promoting fear and half-truths is just wrong. Stick with proven facts or we, the voting public are no better than the politicians who take out "attack ads" just to wipe mud on the face of an opponent.

Lastly, note that I have consistently referred to the senator as Senator Obama. When American Christians put a stop to their participation in the current culture of dishonor, we will finally find our voice and begin a new day of being respected. We all reap what we sow. We all are involved in the "golden rule", which is the Word of Christ; doing to others as we would have them do unto us....I wonder if our outcry of being mistreated by the "media" is in some way due to the disrespect we distribute to the wide world around us.When Peter said, (I Peter 2:17)"Honor the King" there wasn't a single Christian king on the planet. In fact, many were monsters. So, why should we give honor in that climate? Because if we ever hope to be salt and light in our world, if we ever want honor for our name, and greater yet, for the Name of Jesus, we must lead the way of sowing honor even in soil we don't like.

Jesus said, (don't blithely skip over these words. He taught them in a politically charged atmosphere that celebrated the hatred of political enemies with religious fervor)"You have heard it said,'love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you in order that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax-gatherers (and political parties) do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

That's right, PERFECT. That's how high the bar is for us. If you want to be like the run of the mill, mean spirited, mud slinging, angry political landscape around you, just keep doing what everyone does. But if you want something better, something more like the Face of Christ, reach for the perfection of the Father.

Impossible you say? All things are possible to those who believe......Pastor Randy Dean

"Win for the Lamb..."

2008-01-11T10:21:00.000-08:00

"All things are possible to those who believe..." (Mark 9:23) means to me that God is looking for a community and a culture of believers who intentionally take on impossibilities with a warrior's heart to, "win for the Lamb that was slain the reward for His sufferings" (the Moravians).

I'd rather fail in the attempt of the miraculous than to succeed at mediocrity.

ALL THINGS for Him, ~prd~

IF and THEN...

2008-01-08T09:34:00.000-08:00

If it is January in Wisconsin…then…

With a few rare exceptions the phrase above is easy to conclude. I’d like to take you down a similar path based on the Words of Jesus from Mark 9:23; “All things are possible to him who believes”.

If all things are possible to those who believe, then those of us who believe must never again allow ourselves to be fatalism’s slave. Fatalism is the belief that all the events of life are staged and determined by fate and therefore inevitable. I won’t drag you through the details of how this is the root and substance of a loud segment of the church’s doctrinal view of the “end times”. What I WILL tell you is that fatalism has enslaved too many of us for too long! It has trapped “believers” in a stymied posture of watching the world around us throw itself into fires and deep dark waters to destroy itself, just like the little boy in the story that is wrapped around Jesus’ Words in Mark 9.

If all things are possible to those who believe, then the church should be a culture, a community and a system of transcendent supernatural creativity. We have at our disposal the Genius of the Universe. For all of our bluster about “intelligent design versus evolution” you would think that we would be eager to fully demonstrate God’s resourcefulness. If we want to be taken seriously about intelligent design then we had better take a dive into the deep end of the Presence of God and come up like a water fountain of glorious goodness. This deserves far more elucidation but I better save some of my good stuff for my book.

If all things are possible to those who believe, then our minds and hearts must be washed of the culture of complaint we are surrounded by and be fed instead with “great and mighty things which (we) do not know” (Jeremiah 33:1-3). I don’t remember who it was who coined the phrase “culture of complaint” but whoever it was, nailed it. “I complain, therefore, I am” is an American mantra. But God is baiting us upward with Jeremiah’s promise, “Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.”

There is Something in the Heavens that we don’t know and it is pregnant with “All things are possible to those who believe”. God is feeling pretty good about Himself. Secure, at rest, pleased and satisfied. Isaiah said that God looked at the sacrifice of Christ and He was “satisfied”. From that point forward, “all things are possible to those who believe”. There is Something in the Heavens that is more Good News than all the bad news combined.

One last thought; Prayer is learning the lifestyle of being bowed to the conditions of heaven so that I become an agent of spreading heaven’s conditions on earth. In the story of Mark 9 Jesus concluded the matter by declaring that such challenges do not end without prayer. The greek word for prayer He used refers to being “bowed”. Let me ask you: What has you bowed down today? Are you bowed to impossibilities? Or, are you bowed down to God with Whom, all things are possible?

Whatever has you bowed, that is your god.

A Heavenly Knighthood

2007-12-12T07:31:00.000-08:00

All Things Are Possible...

2007-12-05T10:42:00.000-08:00

(Be forewarned: this blog is longer than usual, but I believe the length is well worth your time)

In Mark 9:23 Jesus said, “All things are possible to him who believes…”. This is one of those statements that will just sit there, staring at you, daring you to do something with it or just flat out throw it away. No middle ground. Or, I should say, no honest middle ground.

What I mean by honest middle ground is the found in the context of this outrageous statement. The story goes like this; a desperate father brings his demonized son to the disciples for help. We aren’t told what they did, just that whatever they did, did nothing. (Sound painfully familiar?) It is clear that they tried because the man said, “…they could not do it…”. Another thing that is clear is that the man at first says that he brought his son to Jesus, and then later clarifies that he really brought the boy to the disciples. This isn’t a contradiction but rather a striking clarification; when we are impotent, observers will account that to Jesus and that absolutely, positively must NOT be OK with us for it brings dishonor to His fully honorable Name.

Jesus underscores this point by sharply rebuking His boys: “How long shall I put up with you? Bring him to Me!” The phrase “put up with” has a meaning akin to fierce restraint; not just an average case of patience. When they bring the boy to Jesus, the demon acts out in convulsive self-destructive violence. Later in the account the father warns that this behavior has thrown the child into fires and water to destroy him. You know what I mean when I say, “Somebody call 911!”?

Then Jesus does something that we all need to think about: He calmly asks, “How long has this been happening to him?” Are you paying attention? Jesus, Son of God, able to read thoughts and unlock the secrets of our hearts seems to want information unavailable to Him. Or is there something deeper going on?

Can you see this in your mind’s eye? The disciples are toeing the ground, embarrassed and maybe trying to think of something spiritual to say. Like, “It’s not about us anyway, right Jesus? We tried but You must increase, we must decrease. After all, this way You will truly get the credit…right Jesus? Uh, Jesus…shouldn’t You hurry up and do something? This is getting messy…Yo, Jesus, do You see the campfire right behind us? Oh yikes! This crowd is getting huge. Tick-tock, Jesus….Wait a minute…hey Peter….maybe Jesus isn’t going to do anything about this. Yea, that’s it! Jesus just wants us to know that this is a life-long struggle for this family.”

As the pregnant pause reaches a crowning, painful birthing point, Jesus does not yet push when the father begs, “If You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!” Then, when the tension has reached an unbearable crest, Jesus answers, “If You can?” Now bear with my imagination again as we turn back to the disciples; Jesus might have said, “I don’t know…what do you guys think? Can I?” I believe that every second of pause in this discourse is for the sake of driving home a life long lesson in the 12.

“All things are possible to him who believes.” And while this should be the battle cry of the church, we have all too often defaulted to the next words; the despondent cry of the father, “I do believe; help my unbelief.” Please hear me; I have been as given to this as anyone reading this, but I am pleading with you and myself to pull ourselves upward for the prize of the call of God in Christ Jesus; “All things are possible to him who believes.” Where would you rather live the rest of your life?
The conclusion of this account is that Jesus commands the spirit to leave and in an instant the boy is so still he seems dead. (Side note: some of the crowd must have thought that Jesus killed the kid because of the way Mark records it; “most of them said, ‘he is dead!’”) When the disciples finally get some privacy (which I’m sure was none too soon for them) they asked Jesus why they could do nothing. Listen to me; WE NEED TO BE ASKING THE SAME QUESTION!!

Last summer I posted a blog that asks, “How dare we be powerless?” The world we live in is serving up thousands of opportunities every day for the Kingdom of God to demonstrate the absolute goodness of God. But we keep looking for spiritual sounding words instead of paying heed to the answer Jesus gave 2000 years ago in this prophetic story; “This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer.”

Notice, Jesus never prayed over this boy!! He was not saying that when we really learn how to pray about problems they will leave. He is saying that when we learn to be people who live and breath in prayer, unceasingly, we will have a bank vault full of the intimacy and reality of God that will catapult every dark thing that comes anywhere near our sphere of influence.

The humbling of the 12 in this story is ours too. But the difference is, they didn’t have the convenience of the pages I just used to teach the principles of the Kingdom. They had a matter of months to learn what we have had a matter of centuries to absorb. If Jesus felt “fierce restraint” then, what must He feel today?
Here’s my passionate cry on His behalf; arise and slay the unbelief holding you back! Every time you hear yourself being the victimized father in this story instead of being the fully discipled son or daughter of God, do whatever you must do to run to the manifest Presence of God and pray. And when you pray, do not pray the problem! Prophesy the solution of the Body of Christ becoming the abiding Temple of the Holy Spirit through prayer….and then…..

ABIDE THERE UNTIL YOU RADIATE HIM.

Demand Reality

2007-11-15T07:38:00.000-08:00

In 1976 I was hired as a gopher (slave, errand runner, do anything you are asked to do boy) and speech writer for a congressional campaign in Texas. A pastor friend of mine was taking a run at the office and, interestingly enough, one of the other people in the run was a young political upstart named George W. Bush. We, along with "W", lost in the primary. What I saw behind the scenes will never leave me.

We hired an image consultant from New Jersey (get a rope). It fell my duty to go to the airport and pick up the two sleaze bags sent to us to create an image. I drove our candidate's Cadillac. As we were pulling away from the airport curb, a New Jersey accent asks, "Whose car is this?". I grinned and said, "What...don't you think I look like the owner? (no response; I cleared my throat)It belongs to our candidate." "Store it, hide it, put it away until after the campaign. We don't need a preacher driving a Caddy". I quit the campaign 2 days later.

Recently, a government agency held a press conference with employees from their own agency standing in as reporters. Then last week a presidential candidate was caught in the common practice of planting people in the crowd with "questions". I would love to see the behind the scenes image consultants scramble to make that look like something it isn't.

Make no mistake about it, these things happen because we allow it to happen. There is something wounded and broken in the American soul that is vulnerable to being conned and it must be healed! Somewhere, somehow, someone will arise and call into reality the demand for reality that will heal a nation.

Jesus lived as one whole and real Human. So completely at rest with Himself that He did not need anyone's acceptance to feel any better about Himself. So, when a rich man approached Him with what seemed to be a simple question about the afterlife, Jesus felt no compulsion to hide His Caddy in the garage. "Sell everything you have and follow Me". The rich man was not used to people who did not kiss up to him. He was more acclimated to a song and dance to win his favor. He walked away from Jesus and he walked away from his own ultimate reality check.

Demand reality of yourself. Don't play to the expectations of anyone who is not vitally connected to your best interest in Life! Be Holy; one person on stage or back stage. This does not mean that you get to be nasty or grumpy, it just means you need healing deep inside yourself to be at ONE with God and your true self.

Demand reality of political candidates who have an enormous stake in winning your vote (and a job promotion from your vote). I remember when Bob Dole ran for president and he suddenly changed from this guy who was clearly comfortable in his skin to this "thing" that needed to look like a president. After he lost I saw him in an interview, relaxed, joking and laughing at himself. The interviewer said, "Wow. Where was this 'Bob Dole' in the election? I think this Bob Dole would have won". And the crowd applauded...

Let's each one of us give the crowd something to applaud by being real and demanding reality through the self assurance that stands as a sharp contrast to the cartoon characters trying to be something they are not.

3 Teeth Pulled, 1 Dry Socket and a Funeral

2007-11-13T09:18:00.000-08:00

Once again, too long no blog. Hang in there with me. Here's what last week looked like in my life:
Sunday the 4th I got out of the shower at 6am to grab the phone. 2 young
men in our church were in an accident. One died at the scene and the other
one was in the hospital. Alcohol was involved. The day became a blur of
church services, tears, holding grieving and frightened family members and
much prayer.

Monday the 5th I have 3 teeth pulled in preparation for some much needed
dental rebuilding.

Thursday Funeral and Triumph as the mom of the deceased young man stands
bravely in front of 300 in attendance to declare that our church has
declared war with the monster of alcoholism in Wisconsin and this set
back is a set up for victory. I stood at her side proud to be her pastor.

Thursday night pick up guest speakers from Atlanta for the weekend.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday = One dry socket and loads of pain. ER trip
Saturday night.

Monday morning back in the dentist chair.

I have not forgotten my loyal readers, I just need to catch up on life and send you some love real soon......stay tuned.....

Love's Absolute

2007-10-31T07:39:00.000-07:00

Something has to change....wouldn't you agree? I mean, isn't the whole world running hard after some kind of change? Diets, global warming, politics, the fall TV schedule, fashions, new car models, makeovers (extreme or otherwise), the emerging church (a new term but an ancient pursuit), demographics....you name it, its changing. If it isn't changing its probably dying.

However, the key to being part of a change that isn't changing just for change sake is being changed by something Absolute. After all, radical Islamic fundementalists want change too, but their brand of change is death to the infidels and, well, I guess they don't mind dying too.... which pretty much leaves us all dead. My point is that change has to grow out of a deeper transcending Truth because, as stated at the top of this blog, something HAS TO change.

Here's what I believe; If you will give God a handful of change, He will give you an acre of life. God is the only One who can change everything instantly but, He won't impose change where we don't invite it. Hence, giving Him the handful. You and I don't have to change everything today, but we do need to change something.

So here is today's challenge to change: Loved people are extraordinarily and daily changed. Love indeed changes everything! But I hasten to add, not just human love. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy loving and being loved by my wife, family, church and friends. It's just that I have discovered that even if those factors are in place, I am still looking for Love. Love's Absolute is God.

Too often when we approach the subject of the love of God, we smile it off with a warm feeling (at best). At worst, it hits an empty detached wish for an experience. Jesus and Paul prayed for something dramatically different: Read John 17 and Ephesians 3:14-19.

TALK ABOUT ABSOLUTE!! Jesus wants us to have the same love that the Father had for Him, from the beginning, when They lived in the mystery of the Trinity....that Holy Community of Absolute One, though Three. What held Them together? Love. And that Love, Jesus prayed, would be ours. Do you believe Jesus always gets His prayers answered? And Paul gets even crazier because he prayed that we would actually experience God's Love so much so that we would be filled WITH ALL the FULLNESS of God! That's outrageous!
I John 4:16-19 says, “God is love…”. God doesn't just love, He IS Love. This sets an arresting base-line for ALL of our dealings, all of our vision and all of our pursuit of God. This passage also says that this Perfect Love violently, forcefully and furiously "casts" out fear and every related anecdotal deviation even remotely resembling fear.

This kind of Love will ruin us. Sick, dysfunctional, manipulative posers of love won't stand a chance. The human condition is uniquely vulnerable because God created us to be Loved,not just loved. In absence of Love, we become reckless. In the aberrations of Love, we become abnormal. But in the full on Transcendent Supremacy of God's Love we are free to become the full on human we were all destined to be.

So whether you have put yourself in the vortex of this Love for years or you have not at all, in either case, dive in NOW! I know that some of you want to know how, but the truth is, if I knew how, with western scientific precision, I'd borrow all the money I could and advertise it everywhere I could buy the time and space to shout it out. Why? Because something has to change!

The value of any person, place or thing is in direct proportion to the Love that is allowed into on and through that person, place or thing. Allow it. Make room for it. Get out of your own way. Get on your knees and accept it. Go out in the woods and open wide your mind and heart to receive it. Just do something to ALLOW IT!

Jude 20,21 says to keep yourself in the Love of God.
"ARGGGGHHH!", you say. "Tell me how!", you say. I can only tell you why.

Because this LOVE CHANGES EVERYTHING!

Did you know?

2007-10-10T06:49:00.000-07:00

Michael Angelo, our church web artist, asked me last night if I would use this forum to invite you to visit our church web site at, www.lwc1.com . (Thats lower case L W C and the number one). From there you can download my Sunday and Wednesday sermons for free. If you want to burn a CD and give it to a friend, just please write the web site address and this blog site on the CD. And, by the way, there is also a link from the church's web page to this blog.

We are constantly updating that web page and striving to make it as much of a service to as many people as possible. It is important to us that the vision and message that God has entrusted to us is seeded out as far and wide as possible. That is all....

Nasty Cat in the Basement

2007-10-08T08:39:00.000-07:00

In my 35 years of pastoring I have found that there are very few productive options to hold to when it comes to the subject of the "end-times". The following is a basic sampling to illustrate what I mean:
*ignore it because it is too complicated
*ignore it because it isn't my gifting to teach it
*ignore it because it is too scary
*ignore it because it is too controversial and it might split my church
*go after it and sink into the multiple complications (and sinking genuine discipleship)
*go after it and pretend it is my gift to teach it (while secretly using one of many books written
by the specialists on the dates, timelines and current geo-political dynamics)
*go after it and scare the pants off most thinking people and ignore the terror in the eyes of
women and children
*go after it and identify my church as one of the "Pre", "Post", "A", "Mid", etc. catagories

Ignoring it is like greeting guests into your home and warning them that you have a nasty cat in the basement when and if you see them approaching the basement door. "Trust me. You don't want to go down there. The stench alone is bad, not to mention the rabies. Why do we keep it? Well, it was my grandmother's cat.....she mysteriously died from rabies....but we promised to care for dear old Nasty."

Going after it can be like keeping Nasty on the main floor. "Oh-oh...there he goes again, claiming territory! Don't worry. Your shoes should smell better in a month or so. And by the way, do you have your rabies vaccinations up to date?"

I've chosen an entirely different path. I euthanized old Nasty several years ago. The basement was a beast to clean but my house smells much better these days. Occasionally, a guest shows up at my house with their own cat. It's really annoying, but I've learned to keep a cat euthanizing kit right at my front door. Through the years people have learned that they are always welcome in my home but they better leave their nasty cat in their own basement. Apparently, some folks prefer a living vicious, smelly, rabid cat over living the abundant life.

As for me and my house? Well, lets put it this way; The Lion of the Tribe of Judah lives triumphantly in every room and His Kingdom is coming, day by day, ON EARTH, AS IT IS IN HEAVEN. The smell is heavenly......

95%

2007-10-01T12:12:00.000-07:00

We have trained ourselves, intentionally, but more so, unintentionally, to expect a marginalized amount of Good and God in our lives. In more ways than I can count, Christianity has allowed for a faith that says that there is only so much of God’s goodness that you can expect in this life, and that it may even be wrong to "over-expect" or put God to the test. As a result, "going to heaven" and, when we "get to" heaven becomes our default for anything that extravagantly challenges our faith. (Another one of these safe zones is the millennium, but that's a topic for a different time).

This is a far too convenient way for Christians to have a lack of faith and then validate it in spiritually accommodating terms. This can sound so spiritual, even “mature” and then quietly, but tragically, invalidate mountain moving, history making, nation healing faith. Limiting, portioning and budgeting our faith then becomes, “mature”. I read somewhere, however, that real maturity is coming to the full stature of the image of Christ and, frankly, His kind of faith scares the khaki pants off most of us.

As a result, I don’t believe we’ve expended the kind of concentrated, corporate, cultural faith for a significant amount of time consistently to really know what God might pour on earth from heaven. Are you aware that Moses saw sapphire floors in the presence of God, right here on earth? What are we seeing? I watched a popular national TV broadcast last night that put new wood floors under a family that neglects their own needs in order to meet the needs of others. That's great, but I'm tired of being a part of a church culture that accepts an impoverished view of what we can do while the outside world dances circles around us.

I wonder what would happen if, in the church, a delightful core of warrior believers found their way to a corporate, kingdom, cultural mindset and they learned to establish among themselves a covenant to speak the same things, sing the same things, to believe and agree together on the same things (in kindness and love) to hold ourselves true in prayer, with a line drawn, that every good and perfect gift comes down out of heaven; if it’s evil, we did it or the devil did it and by the Kingdom's power and glory, we will overcome it!

I don’t know if we have fasted toward this kind of community. (Read and reread Malachi 3:10-18; Isaiah 58:6-12) All too often we allow the delusion of little compromises and diluted down versions of the Kingdom among us. Even our "Christian" media sometimes is so subtle in these errant messages that we miss the watering down of badly needed world changing truths. Christian sugar flies at us and sticks us in sugary holes. People all around us are living in hell while we sing about how much fun we'll all have when we get to heaven. Shouldn't we rather dare to dream about bringing heaven to earth for the healing of the nations?

We are called to a fierceness of spirit, of faith and of a cultural covenant kingdom communication to war against those things that war against us and to be collectively drawn to a REAL focus of heaven on earth. What would happen if we focused on just how far do we dare go with this!? What would happen if we (and I mean, at least, a core of us) would end all the shaming and blaming of people groups and politics and take up the command to examine ourselves and our own works to see if WE are in the faith? What faith is that? The faith that aims at discipling the nations (not a few in every nation, but the whole nation), raising the dead, healing the sick and the confident announcement that the Kingdom of God has come near because it lives and breaths IN US!

We need a vision of our calling that requires God's presence and power in us to accomplish it. By the way, and for the record, I'm not talking about TV ministries or buildings. It seeems to me that too much of what we church folks do could have been done with or without God. Billy Graham is credited with saying that 95% of the activities in today's church would continue if the Holy Spirit were removed from us, but in the book of Acts, 95% of the church's activities would have stopped if the Holy Spirit was removed.

If that burns you like it burns me, lets change it.

Expectations Watered Down to the Level of Our Disappointments

2007-09-24T12:35:00.000-07:00

If we are not diligent, we tend to water down our expectations to the level of our disappointments. Pastor Kris Vallotton says it this way, "When your memories are greater than your dreams, you've already begun to die". To be a "believer" is just that, to be a believer!

It is potentially a wild privilege to be a believer in a culture of unbelief. The vacuum that unbelief creates is an astonishing opportunity for people of faith to step forward with the clarity of a contrast. (I'd like to refer you to a couple of my previous blogs on this matter; "How Dare We be Powerless" and "Too Much Faith".) In Matthew 24:14 Jesus makes it clear that before any kind of an "end" to anything, that God seeks someone who will clearly preach the Kingdom of God as a witness and demonstration. In another place (Luke 10:9) Jesus told His disciples to heal the sick and tell them that the Kingdom came near enough to do the healing. This tells me that the Kingdom of God holds explosive spiritual treasures waiting for the hungry, curious, insatiably and voraciously eager seeker who comes with irresistible desire.

But remember, it is impossible to be cautious and extraordinary at the same time. What disappointment is worthy of carrying for another day that will lock you into a truncated and marginalized vision of God? What failure has you frozen in time in an endless analysis of what went wrong? If you keep focusing on yesterday you are going to make your tomorrow look like your past.

Try this on for size; Jesus lived as one man completely fixated on the reality of the Kingdom of God in the face of the One World Government of His day. He never signed a petition against Rome, much less obsessed with its very real evil. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil (Acts 10:38) and, today, Rome is better known for being the headquarters of the world's largest church. Good overcame evil. If it did it once, it can do it again. Sign me up for that team.

Metamorphosis

2007-09-12T08:42:00.000-07:00

An incredible account is given to us in Matthew 17, Mark 9 and Luke 9 of the transfiguration of Jesus. I have eagerly poured over this account more times than I can count in my near 4 decades of loving God and His Word. I have tried a few times to bring some kind of adequate teaching as a pastor from this treasure. Commentaries help with some discussion of location, greek grammar and lexical assistance but in the end, they bore me. My soul cries out for a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. What's really here? In II Peter 1:16-21 the apostle gives us the only personal accounting of this event in a teaching format. For me, this is the only trustworthy commentary. I'll come back to this momentarily.

Romans 12:1,2 urges us to refuse the current cultural mindset, but it doesn't stop with a negative. Paul takes aim at another mount of transfiguration for every believer. "...but be transformed by the renewing of your mind...". Paul revs up the spiritual engine of command and shouts that each one of us needs a regular furnace blast of a meta or glorious moment. The prefix "meta" means over, or beyond. The greek word for transformed that Paul chose to use is the word "metamorphoo". In biology it would be used to describe how the tadpole becomes the frog. This word that Paul used is the same word used to describe what happened to Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. Let's splice these accounts together, just for the heck of it, shall we?

Jesus, looking down the barrel of His impending death, is perhaps feeling very human. Remember the last time you faced the prospect of a root canal? Or, some serious life changing or even life threatening event was hanging in the air before you? Take that sensation and multiply it by a thousand and maybe you've got an inkling of Jesus' post in life at that time. So, with complete intentionality, He took Peter, James and John in tow up the mountain to pray. Luke's account says that, "while He was praying, the appearance of His face became different...". Let me tell you, baby, that wasn't the only thing that changed.....but I'll write too much for one blog if I go there now. Read for yourself and if you will read it with the Holy Spirit's eyes in your eyes get ready to find your own mountain. Right now, my mountain is right here in my office.

Jesus needed a meta moment for a metamorphosis. He also knew that Peter, James and John needed a teachable meta moment so He took them along to fry their circuits. Just for the sake of keeping my composure while I'm writing this let me draw to the conclusion I promised you earlier by returning to II Peter. Peter says of that moment that he isn't trying to sell a philosophical page turner for the New York Times best seller list. He says, "we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ....we were eyewitnesses of His majesty...". And then he pushes me off the cliff of credulity when he says, "...we have the prophetic word made more sure to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in you hearts."

I've been telling my church and you who read this blog that we need a baptism in Absolute Goodness and Glory if we are to have any credible refutation of the absolute bad and evil that soaks our world. If Jesus needed a metamorphosis in a cloud of glory because He prayed it into and unto that mountain, we dare do no less for our often pitiful mindset. Jesus said that we are the light of the world and this little light of mine, baby, I'm gonna LIGHT IT UP.

I am arising, I am shining because the glory of the Lord has risen upon me. BECAUSE deep darkness is upon the people of non-transfiguration, the Lord has risen upon me and His glory is appearing on me, to such an extent that entire nations are seeing it and coming to that light. Oh, and one more thing: after the resurrection of Jesus Matthew records that His appearance, His "fashion", His aspect, the very sight of Him was "like lightning". That potential is latent in you and me. OK....I'm done talking to you now....I gotta go get me some o 'dat. The world around me has been dying for too long. I've got an assignment.

For the Greater Good of Many

2007-09-04T08:45:00.000-07:00

About two months ago the Holy Spirit dropped a truth in front of my eyes that all at once delighted me and distressed me. If you've been reading my blogs or attending my church or downloading the messages from our church website you know that I am teaching and preaching on a Baptism in Absolute Goodness and Glory. I think its obvious why the subject material would delight me but I want to explain why there was and still is a lingering distress.

I can not bear the radio-voiced, sugar coated, yippee-skippy, glad-handed, fake smiled, kaki pants, buttoned down image that current Christianity seems all too often determined to defend with a cliched, "Hey! God is Good! (and the antiphonal comes back...) "All the time!" Sorry, but I think I just threw up a little in the back of my throat....there....I'm better now. The sheer remote possibility that someone would relate me into that kind of self styled stereotype distresses me, to say the least.

The Goodness and Glory of God can not be relegated to a safe zoned level of understanding, because if it is, it ceases to be anything even remotely resembling the genuine Goodness and Glory of God. In fact, as I have been ministering out of this incredible understanding, I have discovered that the True Goodness and Glory of God will seize you and demand of you a complete surrender to it that can only be accurately pictured in my mind as a baptism. All or nothing.

Consider Moses. At 80 he is repeatedly racing up and down the 7500 feet of elevation of Mt. Sinai. There he enters a fire storm, a cloud and sees the ground under the feet of God that looks like saphire. He comes down the mountain with the stone tablets of the law (personally handed to him by God) and throws these 100 pound beauties (at 80!) in a holy fit of disgust at the people of God. Then he runs back up the 7500 foot ascent, pleads for God to forgive the folks he just threw the tablets at and even offers himself as the first to be vaporized if God does not forgive the people. Then he spends the night carving out new 100 pound tablets (at 80!) for God to rewrite the 10 commandments. And with all that amazing face to face encounter with God Moses still realizes that he does not know, by experience, the Glory and Goodness of God!! How do we know that? Because Moses asks to see the Glory of God and God granted his request with a blast of radiance that had to be partially shielded from Moses so that the sheer Goodness of it would not kill him.

Moses was raised in the American dream of his day; Pharoah's opulent court. But his later baptism in the Goodness and Glory of God, starting with the burning bush and rounded off with the aforementioned radiation treatment, ruined him on cheap imitations of good. This explains why to this day so many people linger around the edges of God's Glory and Goodness. They love to say how good God is, but they hold back from any real encounter with it for fear that they too might be compelled to climb mountains, carve stone, haul and heave heavy weights and passionately intercede for otherwise unworthy masses. God forbid that our face would shine. We might lose the right to disobey God if our face is otherwise advertising our availability for the distribution of His Glory.

The true desire for a Baptism in Goodness and Glory is found in its purest form when it is to see an atmosepheric shift and a change of climate for a greater good of many. The evil of our day dares us to present any challenge to its seemingly undefeated prowess. If all we have in response is some giddy cliche we will soon be thrown to the dump yard of irrelevance and incompetency. But if someone will, for God in heaven's sake, read II Corinthians 3 and leap into the chest of Christ's compassionate passion, they will come down from their own mount of transfiguration with a radiance of the Holy Spirit for the greater good of MANY. But, we cannot give what we do not have and we will not keep what we do not GIVE AWAY.

Mud Pies in a Slum

2007-08-22T09:43:00.000-07:00

C.S. Lewis once said, "Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea".

In other words, we are far too easily satisfied. We inhale the empty calories of so much artificial stimulation that when reality comes calling, our hunger is ruined. It’s like mom used to say to you about eating before supper time, “Put that cookie down! It’ll ruin your appetite!”

Absolute Goodness and Glory is on the table. The aroma is filling the air and the lions in my spiritual stomach are growling. God has sent the Holy Spirit on a venture of availability trolling for people who know how to have an honest, heartfelt internal dialogue; “If I just touch His garments, I shall get well.” (Mark 5:24-34)

Some versions of the story I just referred to describe the event as Jesus perceiving in Himself that “virtue” had just proceeded from Him. The definition of the word virtue is, “moral excellence and goodness of character”. Absolute Goodness trumped temporary badness WHEN someone took the Holy Bait of that Goodness and put a pure hearted demand on it! Think about this; someone in a crowd seized Jesus’ clothes for a brief moment and that act of a focused appetite became a conduit for Absolute Goodness and Glory to flash into her body sufficient enough to expel and vaporize a 12 year long sickness.

If you are tired of “making mud pies in a slum” then its time to set your imagination free to explore what an infusion of God’s transcendent Goodness and Glory would vaporize if you gave Him just a handful of opportunity.

Reach, grab, pull it in…

Dipped in Absolute Goodness

2007-08-15T14:07:00.000-07:00

What would you look like if daily and for the rest of your life, you were bombarded with absolute goodness and glory? If it is true that when bad events happen to us over a prolonged and intense period of time, that it changes us, even our appearance, then, what would you look like if for the rest of your life, you were bombarded with absolute goodness and glory? And, what would your scope of influence look like if you then became a channel through which God could bombard daily your surroundings with absolute goodness and glory?

In Exodus 33, when Moses passionately cried out to see God's Glory, we are told that God responded by showing Moses His Goodness. That's why I like to use these two words (Goodness and Glory) together and interchangeably. II Corinthians 3 teaches us that God is not budgeting out His Goodness and Glory. He is ready to bombard and baptize anyone who is in a willing pursuit.

Someone once said, "God will always fulfill His promises to your life but He is not obligated to fulfill your potential". This matter of being blasted with the full dose of God's Goodness and Glory is both promise and potential. The promise is seized by faith and the potential is realized by works. Someone else once said, "We don't work for love but we do work FROM love." When I seek to "do good" (look for those 2 words throughout the Bible) I become a sower of the seeds of goodness and glory and those seeds become the target of a greater blast of Absolute Goodness and Glory from Heaven.

Proverbs 11:23 says that the desire of the righteous brings only good but the expectation of the wicked brings wrath. Let me throw this at you: why would any "righteous" person want to be involved in the expectation of wrath? I'm just asking a question because Romans 2 says that the goodness and kindness of God leads us to repentance. I'm not saying there won't be any wrath, I'm just saying that it seems to me to be a terrible waste of faith for us to expect wrath when we could be desiring GOOD! And not just any ordinary, garden variety good....but an Absolute Goodness and Glory that is wildly attractive and extravagantly available.

I'll be back for more on this soon. Read my blog, "So Good it Must be True" from last week. I don't mind saying so myself; I'm on to something here.

I Love Ginger Ann Dean

2007-08-08T13:15:00.000-07:00

33 years ago today, Richard Nixon was on national TV announcing his resignation from the presidency which would be official the following day, August 9th 1974. It seems like yesterday to me but that event was not terribly important to me at the time. What was most important to me was the fact that on August 9th 1974 Ginger and I were getting married.

Up to that time she had lived in one house her whole life, not counting the dorm room she lived in for one year of college. Since that time I have moved her over a dozen times and literally cross country. Today she is happily and contentedly at my side even though she is 1200 miles away from her parents (who are struggling with the daily realities of Alzheimer’s disease in her dad).

I don’t exactly know what she saw in me 3 decades ago and what she still sees in me now but I’m sure glad she sees it and I’m thrilled that she is still my girlfriend. I love her passionately.

33 years and growing more in love; I’m a blessed guy.

So Good it Must Be True

2007-08-07T08:29:00.000-07:00

"Too good to be true". We live by it, make decisions by it, validate cynical behavior by it and generally keep ourselves on the "straight and narrow" by it. I recently heard a speaker take this on by saying, "We always hear that something is 'too good to be true'. I'm learning to say, 'It's so good it must be true". That statement flew right into my heart and splashed right into a stream of revelation in which I am enjoying a lovely summer swim.

First of all, READ THE FOLLOWING CAREFULLY! All caps means I am typing at the top of my lungs. When we say of money schemes, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is", I believe that is generally good advice. There is no Nigerian prince looking to send you a million dollars as soon as you wire him the $3000 transfer fee and all your bank account numbers. Multi-level marketing turns your friends into objects of reaching your sales goals. Stuffing envelopes at home will give you more paper cuts than dollars. Zero down real estate investments will make you a landlord who gets middle of the night phone calls to come jiggle the toilet handle because the toilet has been running for hours and the water is starting to drip through the floor and your tenents downstairs are complaining (and that's on a good day). Got it?

Where we need some fresh spiritual air is in regard to the possibility of Absolute Goodness being accepted and lived as it is poured into our thirsty souls from a Prodigal Father God Whose Goodness makes the best human goodness look evil by comparison. Some definitions here would be helpful. The word prodigal means, "wasteful". The next time you read the parable of the prodigal son, turn it around and think about the prodigal father in that story. He is so wasteful that when he sees his son returning from, "a long way off" he runs at him, leaps upon him, kisses him again and again and that's before the boy utters one word of apology. In another place Jesus said that we earthly fathers, though evil, know how to give good gifts to our children, but how much more does our Heavenly Father give GOOD gifts. Our best good is evil by comparison. How Good is that? Too good to be true?

The human soul yearns and aches for Good. We are drawn to the stories of heroism and survival in the middle of the I35W bridge collapse because something in us is scanning the bad reality desparetely seeking for the Good. We love gazing at a new born baby because she is hope incarnate. A dog dials 911, a man wakes up from a decade of being comatose, a lost letter from a World War II veteran arrives on child's birthday, a cloud formation seems to say, "X marks the spot" are tiny examples of "so good it must be true". But what would it look like if we pulled the veil off our eyes and began to explore and seek a massive deluge of God's Prodigal Goodness?

What would we begin to look like if we were exposed to a greater light of all His Good than we have ever dared imagine? How would we intrinsically change? What subterranean shifts would take place in our impoverished souls? What images of God would be blasted out of our thoughts? Where have we been projecting our dysfunctional behavior into the character of God? And, most importantly, how far would God go with a Baptism of Goodness and Glory if now, under a better covenant than Moses enjoyed, we prayed what Moses prayed in Exodus 33:18? Let me say it in ALL CAPS; IF WE ARE GOING TO OVERCOME TODAY'S EVIL WITH GOOD, WE NEED A BAPTISM IN ABSOLUTE GOODNESS AND GLORY IN AN UNPARALLELED MANNER. WE HAVE NOT BECAUSE WE ASK NOT. Now, dream.....

How Dare We Be Powerless

2007-07-30T13:19:00.000-07:00

Last week I spoke to another youth camp. I'm spent, but everything in me is shaking with desire. My mind, will and emotions are stormy. The Holy Spirit is flying in and around my vision. I can't shake the lump in my throat and, frankly, I don't want to. Maybe I can make some sense of it with this blog.

Youth camps typically bring students out of some sampling of our society's misery. This camp was no different. But what is different for me, at any rate, is that I've been focused on the call and ministry of Moses and how he miraculously led Israel out of Egypt. God has had me dipped in the various nuances of what happened; a shepherd's staff becomes "the rod of God" and eats serpents, splits seas and generally shakes a world super power into surrender. After our week of camp was done and I sat listening to these teenagers share their stories my heart cracked wide open and my eyes haven't stopped pouring a river of prayer ever since.

How dare we, the Church of the Risen Lord, be powerless? How can we accept our impotency in the face of the raging devourer who is eating children and families alive? What excuses will we bear in our trembling hands before our Father when He asks an account of our stewardship of His Kingdom on earth? He declared that His Kingdom will ultimately become the Kingdom of this earth, that EVERY knee will ultimately bow and EVERY tongue will ultimately confess and that there is a surpassing greatness of His power aimed at us who believe which is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. Yet, we are all too often powerless in Pharaoh's presence as he slumps in his throne and giggles under his breath at our demands to release God's people.

Please don't read in my words any shame or blame at you who give me the time to read this word. I am in an inventory which requires me to ask real questions in order to find real answers. Last week, while I saw some physical healings that made me dance with joy I also heard stories of teenagers who will go home to the potential of hell greeting them at the door. I gave as much instruction as I know to go home with power and confidence but I also know that the rest of us, on the outside of those stories, must be equally, if not more, empowered in order to become part of a tipping point in history!

Which one of us will be that tipping point? What moment of deep calling out to deep in God will light a burning bush? Who will open his or her spiritual eyes to see God, high and lifted up, at precisely the right tick of the clock that will cause the pillars of the Throne to shake at the cry for justice on earth from the God Whose Holy character will not long wait to heal the great leprosy of the children of His making? He baits us up into His presence that He might ask, "Whom shall I send and who will go for Me? Have you dared to live long enough now with tokens of My power? Are you ready now for a burning coal of Heaven to permanently blister every word you speak?"

I dared my church yesterday with these words; "The culture of unbelief we live in demands a faith and a believing from us that is uncommon so that we might put on display a God we can never intellectualize or debate a watching world into believing." In the fullness of time, God sent His Son. Now, in another fullness of time, we are here in this hour. How dare we be powerless?

Too Much Faith

2007-07-16T08:09:00.000-07:00

I'd rather risk the potential foolishness of too much faith than to live the tragedy of a life lived by my own strength and resource. Only the mediocre are always at their best because they never risk anything, they rarely try something new and they believe only in what they can see, feel and hear for themselves.

It is a telling commentary that almost everyone believes in the inherent power of evil to spread its influence but few believe the same about the transcendent power of Goodness to infect, infiltrate and permeate its surroundings. Don't believe me? The next time someone sneezes on an elevator ask yourself what the following few minutes feel like for everyone trapped in that box. Or take a quick inventory of your faith after you read about or hear of another shooting in a tough neighborhood.

The uproariously good news of the Kingdom of God, as it is displayed and purely taught by Jesus Christ, stands waiting for a company of renewed minds to take it at its core value and conquer nations with righteousness, peace and joy by the regeneration influence of the Holy Spirit. The potential spread of Absolute Goodness and Glory is far greater through us than any seed of evil ever dreamed of being.

For this, we MUST risk the foolishness of too much faith. For this, someone somewhere must inspire at least a few everyday. Do not wait for extraordinary opportunities but seize the common and ordinary to put an extraordinary God on display.....TODAY!

Dump a Toilet on His Head or Pray

2007-06-27T08:47:00.000-07:00

OK. Just bear with me for a few minutes. I need to say something unpopular and clearly outside the culturally acceptable norm. Yesterday on MySpace one of those stupid baiting ads wanted me to play a game to win a ringtone. The object of the game was to dump 3 port-a-potties on the head of President George Bush. That did it for me. Did what, you ask? Pushed me to write this blog.

It is now the easy, culturally acceptable, popular, "hey look at me I'm smart like everybody else" thing to do to bash and insult the president. If you don't, people look at you like you are wearing clothes from the '90s. "Eeek! You aren't cool!" If you say anything positive, anything even remotely complimentary you surely must be stupid or naive or just blind as a bat Republican. Don't believe me? Go ahead....experiment with the notion of saying anything, and I mean anything decent or kind about President Bush in a group of more than 5 people. Or, if that's too daunting for you, read this blog to someone or follow the potential comments that will be added....

I am absolutely frustrated out of my mind by the war in Iraq. I hate the growing death toll of both war fronts. But the only thing we accomplish by our immature carping and whining and publicly humiliating the president is a diminished capacity for honor, esteem (if you want self-esteem, you must first learn to give esteem outside yourself) and the courage to stand alone against "approval ratings".

Those who know me best will tell you that I started this rant during the Clinton administration. I said then that the greatest danger of the disrespect for that president (that became like a sport for some evangelical Christians) was that we truly devalued our own sensibilities. II Peter 2:9-16 is a striking indictment that warns against being dishonorable even against the most dishonored. Why? Because we marginalize the potential beauties of our own soul by coarse behavior toward any in authority. The greater damage is far greater than any one president.
"Honor the king" (I Peter 2:17) was written in day when kings were pagan monsters. Honor given is holy humility received. Pilate and Herod make all of our politians look like God....yet, Jesus kept His own dignity intact in their presence. It deeply troubled me 10 years ago when high profile preachers dishonored President Clinton. It is even more troubling to me now when we are told that 70% of our nation is doing the same thing. I believe that the "toilet dumping" is on our own head.

There you have it. I am now officially unpopular. While I'm at it, I'll go home and dig out my old clothes from the '90s and start growing a mullit. "Eeewwwwww, gross!"

Only the Mediocre are Always at Their Best

2007-06-25T13:16:00.000-07:00

Back in the middle '80's the Dean family lived in Austin, Texas. One of the coolest towns on earth. Art and entertainment venues, natural eye-popping sights and a variety of people and cultural types that live in one of the best kept city secrets in America. I'm proud to say I lived there for a short time. One of the best and free entertainment spots was the State of Texas Capital.

I went there at least once a week to pray and people watch. When the legislature was in session, the variety show was better than anything on TV. One time sitting in the balcony and watching the dog and pony show going on the main floor, I was laughing hard and trying not to be a disruption. Suddenly from behind me someone tapped me on the shoulder and I thought I was going to be kicked out. Instead, I turned around and here was Ann Richards (then State Treasurer, soon to be Governor and nationally a Democratic Party power player) laughing with me. Through her own laughter she said, "Pretty good show, ain't it?"

Not long after that incident I was in that same spot when a local Southern Baptist preacher was asked to open the session with prayer. His words were short and riveting. He took the podium, simply said, "Let us pray", and proceeded to hit a grand slam with one of the shortest prayers I've ever heard. "Lord, remind us today that only the mediocre are always at their best. Amen." The legislative floor was stunned into unusual silence. I wanted to laugh and shout, "Amen" at the top of my lungs!

Allow me to take a leap of truth from that statement and offer my own; I would rather fail at attempting the miraculous than to succeed at mediocrity. Lately, my insides are on fire with spiritual desire. The youth camp I spoke of in my last blog is history and the young people from it are about to make history. They were challenged to find their own voice by the power of the Holy Spirit and attempt the miraculous with every step they take.

One story I heard from camp was that a group of teenage boys were praying into the morning hours after an evening service and the suggestion came up that if Jesus could walk through walls, we should too. So, one boy got up, prayed and walked full force into a door. The door did not yield. He picked himself up, declared it must be his lack of faith and took off for the door again. The door won again, but this little band of brothers was not discouraged. They declared that someday, they were going to win this challenge! I can already hear the growlings of the religiously mediocre; "Someone should instruct these children to temper their expectations". Why? So that Pharoah's magicians can continue to eat our shepherd's staff? NO! Keep experimenting with your faith, boys. One day, you'll get it right and Pharoah's serpents will be consumed by a shepherd's staff.

My point here is that for too long Christianity has allowed for a mediocrity at almost every level of its expression. We screwed up the motto, "Failure is not an option" by reversing it into a call to be safe and never daring. I would rather fail at attempting the miraculous than to succeed at mediocrity. Good has always been the greatest enemy of the best and the best was never intended to be leveled off at mediocrity.

Finding Our Voice

2007-06-12T06:59:00.000-07:00

Next week I'll be speaking and ministering at a youth camp with the theme, "Finding Our Voice". I actually suggested the theme a few months ago and it immediately resonated with everyone at that planning session. For me this has been a life long passion because it has to do with far more than the words I speak. It has to do with the prevailing influence, weight and power of who I am.

We all know people whose mouth moves and sounds are emitted from that cavern but no one is interested in spending any energy to actually hear and decipher what was just said. That's because the words are not vitally connected or rooted in any living dynamic. If I say, "war is hell" and you ask me how I know that and my only response is tell you where I found that quote and who originally said it, we might end up having an enlightening conversation but little else is likely to come from it. But if I'm a marine being treated in a military hospital for multiple fresh wounds from an ambush I just survived, and I look up into your eyes and fight to reach for enough air to say those same 3 words, we are going to have an altogether different exchange of thoughts. In fact, those 3 words might be all that is necessary.

In grammar, the concept of voice has to do with the form of a verb showing the connection between the subject and the verb, either as performing (active voice) or receiving (passive voice) the action. "The dog bit the boy" is the active voice because the subject is the dog and the dog is active. "The boy was bitten by the dog" is the passive voice because the subject is the boy and he is on the receiving end of the action. I'm going to strain the analogy for a moment because I hate the word, passive. To find our voice we must learn that all of life is waiting to be lived. We are the subject and we must act or we will be acted upon. I hope the grammar works here because I don't want you to miss the point.

Jesus said that we, His people, are the light of the world. When you enter a room that is pitch black, you don't ask, "Where did all this darkness come from?" do you? You enter the dark room reaching around the corner with the demand, "Where's the light?". If we fall for the notion that our voice is for the purpose of informing the darkness of its varying shades of dark, we are wasting our breath. Our voice IS the light!

The Voice of Jesus calmed storms, forgave unrepentant people, healed sickness, awakened the dead, rebuked religious bigots, raised hopes, loved losers, spoke when silent, silenced ignorance, blessed those who cursed Him, prayed heaven into hell, changed names, called the unqualified, drove demons into pig prisons, opened prisons, lit fires of the heart, whispers peace and trumpets triumph.

Psalm 29 says, "The Voice of the Lord is upon the waters; the glory of God thunders...the Voice of the Lord is powerful, majestic. The Voice of the Lord breaks the cedars...the Voice of the Lord hews out flames of fire. The Voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness...strips the forests bare and in His Temple everything says, 'Glory'." This is the Active Voice. This is the Voice that calls us to be a Voice of equal harmonic beauty, power and true influence.

This boy bites dogs.

King's Quote

2007-06-06T15:03:00.000-07:00

In my previous blog I referenced Martin Luther King Jr. For a full reading of the context of this quote you can use the internet to look up, "Paul's Letter to American Christians, November 4, 1956 by Martin Luther King Jr." I distinctly remember reading this entire letter in the library of my middle school in 1965. I felt like the room had suddenly entered a heavenly realm and that I was all alone with this man of God. It was many years later before I understood the words or the spirit of what happened to me that day. King's words are distinctly and profoundly Christian. I fear that too few today appreciate the depth of his faith and the width of his covenant to Christ.

Anyway, here is the portion of that letter and the quote for my blog:

"I still believe that standing up for the truth of God is the greatest thing in the world. This is the end of life. The end of life is not to be happy. The end of life is not to achieve pleasure and avoid pain. The end of life is to do the will of God, come what may."