LEARNING HOW TO BE ABASED

Each week I have opportunity to interact with some of the greatest leaders of our time.  I have have met so many wonderful people over the years and am very glad to have shared time and moments with these great leaders. However, I value several close relationships I have with the less famous no one knows about.  I have friends who have served faithfully in the backwoods of Maine, from the back towns of Pennsylvania to the Island of Tasmainia, to the rural villages in Germany, to great cities like Melbourne, Australia and Auckland, New Zealand.  You never heard of these guys but they hear God very well, are great friends to have and lead great churches.  The other day, I spent some time on the phone with my friend Jim Cucuzza, who has pastored, overseen hundreds of church plants, and served behind the scenes of some of our nation's greatest prayer meetings on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.  As we talked he bagan to share a very important scripture with me that moved me to listen to The Holy Spirit about the quiet periods of my life.  It comes from Philippians 4:11-13... 

"I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 

I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. 

In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret 

of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 

I can do all things through him who strengthens me."

As Jim shared this scripture with me, he pointed out the phrase, I've learned how to be "abased" and I know how to "abound."  Oh, the church worldwide knows how to feed into our "consumerism" addiction by teaching us on "How To Abound."  But when have you last heard our celebrarity pastors and churches teach on "How To Be Abased"?  Oh, I needed to hear this word from The Holy Spirit.  Just like you I love abounding. I'll be the first to admit publically that I've loved having the opportunity to be a major conference speaker, a radio and TV talk show on major international Christian networks, I've loved having a great lifestyle, abounding in everything and the attention it brings.  My own consumerism has been worse than the addiction for posting selfies.  Now don't get me wrong here. Like many others, I have my own dose of self-inflicted trouble, but where I live, the places I still minister in no way has hurt my lifestyle.  I'm still living a very blessed life.  Since 2008, there are a few moments I'm cashed strapped but I am still very much abounding.  However, God knows how to put me in personal situations to "bring to death" my self life.  I like you, can get very bothered at this idea of being ABASED.  I'm a Western Civiliation guy.  I can't even fathom what it was like for American Journalist James Foley in the last moments of his life. According to Christian today, www.christiantoday.com, Prayer was his inner freedom.  Dressed in an orange jumpsuit, on his knees before his executor, he was abased of all need for fame, self importance, or need to have his worked recognized and was beheaded before all the world... and that is what we will remember about him.  He will be remembered for giving his life tyring to show the world the plight and suffering of the Syrian people. How many of us would volunteer for this calling from God?

Revelation 6:9

When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the 

souls of all who had been martyred for the word of God and

 for being faithful in their testimony.

Let's go to the next level!  Phil. 2:5-11

Nope, not me.  I'm not interested in joiing this group.  Getting honest about my own personal journey with God it bothers me when ask myself questions like am I willing to die for my faith... I don't think I'd deny my faith but I've never been put in the position to deny Christ or die like many of our Christian brothers and sisters are facing in the middle east right now. What would I do if my daughters were threatened with beheading or having their bodies cut in half because of our family's faith?  Get real.  Most leaders and church members today are more concerned about their reputation, how they are seen, and protective of their need to be maintain how others see them.  I know one "famous" guy who lost his marriage because of his own self-inflicted decisions and the only thing he was worried about was when he could up and preach again.  But, who are we to judge him. A dear, Man Of God, once said to me about watching another major leader "falling" that I should never judge any person unless I've walked in their shoes.  God exposes our flaws, failures, and takes us in unwelcomed places, seasons, and puts us in humilating situations for one purpose.  To let us know that He Is God and we are not!  Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith.  We have become to enamoured with thinking we are writing our own stories.  In my journey faith, I can't of one moment of my story that I wrote.  God has been writing my story all along. 

Deuteronmy 8:10-20 

When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God 

for the good land he has given you.  Be careful that you 

do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, 

his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day.  

Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, 

when you build fine houses and settle down, 

and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and 

gold increase and all you have is multiplied,  then your heart will become proud 

and you will forgetthe Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, 

out of the land of slavery. He led you through the vast and dreadful wilderness, 

that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. 

He brought you water out of hard rock. He gave you manna to 

eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known, 

to humble and test you so that in the end it might go well with you.  

You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of 

my hands have produced this wealth for me.”

But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the 

ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, 

which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today. 

If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and 

worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that 

you will surely be destroyed. Like the nations the Lord destroyed before you, 

so you will be destroyed for not obeying the Lord your God. 

I still am not sure what the Apostle Paul ment on "How To Be Abased?"  But here's a couple of things I'm reminded by those men of God who spoke into my life when I first entered into ministry years ago.  Oh!  the blow to my ego.  I need times to be abased.  My heart has given me great trouble at times.  You might say I suffer from heart trouble and so do all of us.  We all have the capacity of having our hearts become proud because of the blessings God brings and we tend to want to tell others "My power and strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me."  Just the shear arrogance of this thought demands our need for being abased.

In the late 1970's a major Christian television producer asked me, "Mike, do you want to be in front of the camera or behind it?"  Of course, being in my early 20's I wanted to be in front of the camera, however, I didn't want to tell him that.  But, God heard me.  Another friend, who was once a major player in the national limelight left it all for the backwoods of Maine to pastor a small church once said to me, around the same time, "Mike you need to leave chasing after all the national limelight and give yourself to ministering in a place like God has called me to minister.  I hated his words.  I had too much ego.  I wanted to be famous in men's eyes- the next Charles G. Finney, John Wesley or whatever. My flesh needed to be stroked.  Now, I've had opportunity to do everything a young "preacher" wants to accomlish professionally. But, I have always backed off seeking the limelight because Of my heart condition... an so should all of us.  We need to be pleasing the Lord.  He is the one who exalts one and puts down another.  I have always been so priviledge to have great men of God in my life, famous too, who have been used mightily by God and still remained the same after humble person they were before God promoted them.  My 1970's TV friend told me, that the most disturbing thing he observed in Christian TV were those preachers who were on TV because of their own egos needing to be stroked vs. because God called them.  I needed to hear all this cousel.  God sent another great "famous" business man into my life when I was in college studying for the ministry.  He looked at me and said, "Son, are you going into the ministry?"  I said, "yes sir."  He replied, "Good.  But remeber one thing, preachers are a dime a dozen. Be a man of God!"  Wow.

2 Cor. 11: 21-29 provides us a God-given model of Leadership

Whatever anyone else dares to boast about—I am speaking as a fool—I also dare to boast about.  Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they Abraham’s descendants? So am I.  Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again.  Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.  Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea,  I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers.  I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.  Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.  Who is weak, and I do not feel weak?   

Though it is hard for me, after being in those very tempting places of "abounding."  My heart need to learn how to be abased.  I need to learn to be content in whatever state I am in.  Each of of us just need to be honored that God allows us to participate in his plan, his church, and his agenda.  I'm honored to have been given great opportunities but and I want to learn How to feel the same when I am in the place of being abased... whatever that is for me.  

I Peter 5:6

Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God

and in due time He will exalt you

"Which part of this verse excites you more is an indication of your heart condition!

Going It Alone...

In 2010 my whole world changed.  It was disrupted by the death of my mother, my father, a major divorce of friends, and a life altering lawsuit against the organization I've worked so hard to build for the last 24 years.  There is a quote I've often heard, "I would rather try and fail than never having tried at all."  Well, I'm not sure that is true.  In fact whoever said that probably never "failed" at trying.  Another platitude that fails to speak to anyone who feels they are failing is. "It's not how you begin, it's how you finish."  Well I'm glad "finishing" well doesn't include that battle with cancer.  My mom never smoked a day in her life and died of small cell lung cancer.  My dad was sprayed with Agent Orange in Vietnam and died of the cancer from it... yet he was a highly decorated US soldier.  I guess my parents illness doesn't meet the "criteria" of finishing well.  I have also noticed that when you personally go through tragedy and loss a lot of people just go away, fall off, and even make up stories of why they can't hang with you through those rough moments in life.  Is anybody hearing me?  You need to be a friend when being a friend is not convenient for you.  I have stuck with many of my friends through the hard moments of their lives.  In the last few months, I've had long term friends (45 years and counting) going through major health challenges.  Each day, I have tried to call encourage them, pray for them, share wonderful memories with them, and try to make them laugh.  It's hard but its loving those whom God has given to you to love the best you know how.  It may not be up to everyone's expectations but the gift of being present, fully present, when there is no "major move of God" or "being in the spotlight of the crowd" and loving your friends when no one else is looking that God is really present.

This past week I faced the hardest moment I've had in life so far.  With me stood three men who I greatly want to thank.  My attorney, a business friend, and a former employee of the group who has scammed churches all across America stood with me for "righteousness."  Even though, I had these three great friends with me - I can't explain how "lonely" I have felt because I felt abandoned by those who I thought would stand with me.  There I said it!  Abandoned.  Is this what it felt like to Jesus to have Peter standing at a distance meaning to see the end of it all?  Too often, we think the "outcomes" should be some kind of miracle the way we would like it to be.  We celebrate those kind of outcomes because it fits with our American Consumerism Cultural expectations... right?  But when have we seen that "disruptions, betrayals, and even death may be true marks of success in God's eyes? Disruptions may be as much a miracle as walking on water was. Without disruptions we might find ourselves shipwrecked.  But in our Western ideologies the villains always lose and the good guys get the girl.  Really?  

I'm sure the middle eastern men who killed whole Christian families this past week in iraq feel justified and victorious while their leaders praise them for pleasing Allah. I guess the recent beheading of Christians and children cut in halves is failure in our eyes. Right?  Did you know that their are thousands of people throughout the world who never built big churches, filled stadiums, or became superstar pastors who died as a martyr because they would never deny Christ. They would rather be beheaded than to to convert to a false religion. The book of revelation speaks about the martyrs cries coming out from the gates of Heaven... yet by our own western ideologies these people failed.  Failed at what?  Failed whom?  I've had enough of these cheap shots false perspectives found in the western church world.  Haven't you heard that the foundation of the church rests on the martyr of the saints.  Peter was crucified upside down.  Legend has it that the Apostle Paul was beheaded.  So lets look at how St. Paul defined success? " I was beaten times without number, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews 39 lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among the false brethren; I have been in labour and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure" (2Cor.11:24-27).  He didn't measure success by numbers, buildings and assets he had.  He talked about his suffering as an important mark of true apostleship.  I haven't heard one thing in the Western Church about success defined in terms of danger and false brethren.  I sometimes wish I had false brethren. It would be easier to take emotionally.

Most of the time, people are so consumed with their own worlds, they just forget you.  It's all about the selfie.  Let me see if I can say it any clearer.  People in our own culture are very well connected, wired, and carry whole communities around on their phone and other social media... but they are dying.  They are going it alone.  They just need a friend.  If you are rightly related to God - then giving and caring for others may require you to stop looking for the likes on Facebook, measuring how many hits to your social media pages, and lay down these obsolete means of communication and get back to real relationship building time - facetime - being fully present with one another in the good times and bad.  Guess you never failed yet?  your time will come.  The scriptures are still true "selfie"  Romans 3:23 ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  Romans 3:10 "There are NONE righteous no NOT one!  

Life Is More Than A Sound Bite!

Friendships are very difficult to maintain when life is based on the speed of trust.  Relationships take time, commitment, face time, and being able to discuss important relational matters.  Too often, people are making assumptions, holding unexplained expectations on others, and holding differing values without those values being articulated to those we assume are on the same page as we are.  This is the age of sound bites.  You can use 140 words a tweet.  You can use a facebook paragraph.  You can text a thought but none of these technologies really present to you who a person is.  These days you can create any identity you want to portray to others.  Most relationships take time.  Intimacy takes deep conversations.  It also takes trust.  When a person opens up, becomes vulnerable, shares the deepest part of their lives - trust is imperative.  Your personal boundaries can only be opened when "trust" is present.  Can I trust You?  Are you really a friend that can know the other and protect them from those who want to use and exploit you for "business."  I have worked hard to build relationships that are authentic.  I have tried to be a trustful person.  I have worked hard to be an example of friendship to others who don't know how to be a friend... and most of the time I've gotten hurt.  But I haven't quit.

I need my friends.  I have great networking skills.  I have developed an ability to listen to differing points of view without taking sides.  Some may think that's hard to do... but not when you are a kid who grew up in a home with divorced parents.  You don't take sides when your mom and dad divorce each other. You have to learn to relate to them without choosing sides.  One of the major problems that emerge in a friendship and having a learned behavior like mine is when a friend asks you to choose them over another friend you love too.  I don't like choosing sides when someone asks me to choose them over another.  I have republican and democrat friends.  I have conservative and liberal friends. I have Christian and non-Christian friends.  When people push me to agree with them and then threaten me I just move on because I will not take sides.  I love people too much to be limited by partisan positions.  I love my Calvinist friends. I love my Quaker friends! I love my Pentecostal Friends! I love my friends no matter what label you put on them.  I am a lover!  Not a hater. 

Twenty years ago, I lost who I thought was my best friend. We had a great friendship but I always knew that this friendship would be hard to maintain because of the conflicts he had in himself. I did everything I could to protect this relationship but finally realized he was never going to be on the same page with where I felt God calling me to.  He was making some life choices and going in a direction I could not follow.  He sat in an office and asked me to choose what he valued and expected over what I thought what we both had valued.  We had a values conflict.  He left and hasn't spoken to me for the last 20 years.  I have never once exposed him.  I have never struck out to hurt him.  I have forgiven him and protected the friendship we once had... because the scripture teaches that a true friend loves at all times. I am still his friend... but his choices in life have resulted in him building with other people who know nothing about him because he has recreated a new world... and if that's what he needs that's okay with me. Our differing values brought an end to our relationship. For me... I need authenticity.  Friendship has categories.  You have marriage and family, neighbors, workmates, acquaintances, brothers, those within a faith community, partners, business leaders, all who have some sort of relationship with you that you call friends.  However, there is one kind of friend that sticks closer than a brother.  Covenantal friends.  Heart to Heart. Spirit to Spirit.  Friendships that move you beyond words.  The problem with most of us is that we do not know how to handle the relationships God gives us.  Don't assume that everybody that comes into your life has been sent by God. Some relationships are totally inappropriate and to engage in them will lead to failure.  The Bible is filled with such stories. Proverbs describes the type of people to avoid. However, every relationship given to us by God is a sacred trust. Too often, when we do not follow the guidelines of friendship laid out in scripture we get blindsided by people who the scripture warns us about.  When God gives me the people he sends into my life - it's important I recognize the gift of "them" that God has given me.  Likewise, the other party needs to understand the same.  It's also important to understand what role we play in each others lives so that we do not get confused with our understanding of the other's values and expectations.  Don't assume you understand anything - even if you had relationship for 20 years.  If it is not a covenant relationship then don't expect the benefits of the covenant.  If it is another category then don't set yourself up for failure by trying to be something the other person has not asked you to be a part of.  People don't fight over scripture, over worship practices, or styles, goals, or their relationship.  They fight over values... and end relationships because of them.

I often wonder, with all the infighting, mishandling of relationships, and broken trust that have resulted over those unspoken expectations and differing values found in relationship what we are all going to say in front of Jesus about our broken relationships with one another.  Do you think Jesus will choose between me and you?  Is he caught in the middle of the disputes?  Will he let both of us in heaven?  Or will he choose you over me and send me to hell because I didn't live up to your expectations, share your values, agreed with Fox News or MSNBC political blood sporting, or held to your wrapping your interpretation of scripture around your values, or having different sins than you.  Obviously,  Jesus will choose  between our views, and has aligned himself with our opinions, and is wrapped in our disputes and will send me to Hell because I'm don't agree with you. Your facebook comments, tweets, and all your instagram photo opts are the are the right perspectives only if I agree with them. The moment I show any disagreement - I get deleted.   I wonder what Jesus has to say about the new communities we carry in our pocket and how easily our sound bites determine the future of relationships.  FB, Tweeting, and Instagram can become the new living Hell when all the rules, protocols, and respect of boundaries is redefined by those daily sound bites we receive in the texts...  Do you really want to offer yourself as a friend or not?  Do you really want to be a friend or not?  The only thing you need to carry forward in any relationship is "loving others" the best you know how?  Jesus had to ask Peter three times "DO YOU LOVE ME?"  Why did it take him so long to answer Jesus back "Jesus, you know that I love you?"  Is it because He Knew Jesus would give him the final proof of love?  Peter, If you love me then take care of those relationships I have given you.  True friendship is demonstrated in how you love the others around you.

Proverbs 18:24

There are “friends” who destroy each other, but a real friend sticks closer than a brother.

Immigration Reform

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Most countries around the world are struggling with issue of dispossessed refuges - resaulting from war, famine, climate change, or poverty.  Every parent is looking to give their children a better shot at life than they have had.  My country is struggling with this same issue.  Over the last month, the national news media has focused on the 50,000 children coming across the Texas and Arizona borders from Central America.  This has provoked further discussion about the growing problems of immigration control and what has been a major discussion about the problem of illegal immigrants.  I am somewhat amused that the focus has always been on Central America when we have huge populations of Asians, Africans, Haitians, Cubans, Middle Easterners, and others coming into our country illegally the same way.  However, I want to state right out the gate that I believe we do have a problem controlling our borders.  This problem needs to be fixed. However, before we just make rash decisions and have knee jerk reactions, we need to examine what our calling as a nation is and then work together to follow that purpose assigned by God to us in our time and in our generation. 

Our nation was built on immigration.  People who had fled other lands because of extreme persecution built it.  English Puritans, Quakers, Anabaptists, Presbyterians, Irish Catholics, French Huguenots, and others all fled Western Europe seeking relief from the tyranny of violence, persecution and intolerance they faced and came to shores of North America seeking refuge, religious freedom and recipical liberty.  Those movements of immigration were illegal entries and violations from a Native American perspective based on the Roman Catholic Church’s edict known as “The Doctrine Of Discovery.”  But the European immigrants didn’t care if they were violating and stealing the land of the American people.  As far as they were concerned America’s resources were available to enrich their lives.  These European refugees also didn’t think it was a problem to import African people to provide them a labor force to support their aristocratic European lifestyles. This is the history that no one wants to talk about.  But it’s this history that should provide a foundation for all our discussion on our country’s immigration policy before we undertake immigration reform.  What do we do about the stranger seeking refuge in our land?  For people of biblical faith, the scripture is clear: "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Leviticus 19:18). The question is, "Who is my neighbor?"

The answer is found a few verses later. "The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.” The command to love the "stranger," however, is not open ended. The Hebrew language of the Old Testament uses three words to describe strangers, aliens, or immigrants. Two words basically mean the same thing: nekhar and zar refer to foreigners whose allegiance remained with their native country. These people were denied the benefits of citizenship in Israel, and are not in view in Leviticus 19:34. On the other hand, the Hebrew word ger, often translated "sojourner" or "stranger," as in Leviticus 19:34, is a person who had immigrated to Israel legally with the intention of becoming a citizen. Israel was to treat these immigrants as if "native" born, granting them benefits of citizenship, including the right to glean fields (Leviticus 19:10; Deuteronomy 24:19–22), to receive a portion of the special tithe collected every three years for the poor (14:28–29; 26:12–13), to be paid in a timely manner (24:15), allowed to rest on the Sabbath (5:14), and to receive fair treatment in legal cases, without discrimination (1:16–17) or being taken advantage of (24:17–18; 27:19). But when applying biblical truth to immigration reform today we need to keep in mind that America is not Israel.  America, as we know it today, was birthed by a God-given vision given to William Penn.  He is the architect of the “Holy Experiment,” which has been translated now into the American Experiment and experience for more than 333 years.  But we need to be careful to how we interpret scripture, history and our current cultural perspectives in light of our current immigration crisis.  Israel’s history is littered with “Doctrine Of Discovery” like history, William Penn was granted a charter on the basis of the “Doctrine Of Discovery” and owned African Slaves.

Likewise, our own family heritages emerge from our own American Immigrant histories – good and bad.  I guess what I’m trying to say is, “we need to be thoughtful about our immigration reform.  On the one hand there are those who argue that illegal immigrants take away American jobs, tax our health care and educational systems. On the other hand, our current millennial generation is NOT going to pick our vegetables, construct our brick laid houses, cut our grass or cook our Chinese or Mexican food?  So who’s doing the work they don’t want to do?  Illegal Immigrants… that’s who!  And that maybe this is the root of our immigration problem.  But hasn’t that been the role of all immigrants when they came to America over the last 238 years?  As a part of our journey forward as Christians, I hope we see the opportunities God is giving us.  I believe that the major reason God brings the immigrants to this land is to present the nations represented with the Gospel.  There is no other nation where the Gospel can be heard without the threat of being beheaded, persecuted, or protected as a believer than what America offers as an opportunity to the illegal immigrant.  The system is broken but the calling remains sure… American is called to be a City of Refuge – and a land of opportunity. 

The Day After The Tea Party Ends!

      I'd like to discuss two subjects: why "The Tea Party" will eventally end and why the "Christian Right" worldview of America is wrong. America was designed to be a "City Of Refuge" for persecuted Christians of various denominational faiths. As such, each faith group that came had to learn how to live and work together in cultural diversity and do justice. First, Christians in America should be  an example, to our brothers and sisters throughout the world on How to conduct ourselves in a culturally diverse world just as the early Jewish disciples had to work in Gentile nations - who did not share their Jewish faith and practice or share their God. The Church in America is failing to grasp and neglecting the serious call of the Lord to disciple our nation instead of trying to build a Augustinian kingdom based on faulty scriptural understandings of our role in culture.  Secondly, American Christians will never be able to "legislate" their religious views on a democratic republic, especially in this post-modern era. The system of government designed in America was designed to frustrate all groups at sometime or another.  Words like compromise, dissent, minority, tolerance, and reciprocal liberty are the main tenants of our country's constitution.  I'm certainly thankful that out of all the early colonial history God used William Penn and the Quaker frame of government to become the basis of our political system. 

William Penn meets with First Nations In Historic New Castle, Delaware

   Let me begin with my first point about our Christian responsibilities in reaching our culture for Christ. From the founding of our country, four major British cultures were established on the eastern shores of the United States.  The Boston culture was firmly established with Calvinistic Puritan ideas.  Those embedded ideas begin with the Total Depravity of humankind.  God is good - humanity is bad, therefore, we need to legislate people's behavior, life, ways, and customs. So, liberty was based on the Puritan ideas of order, discipline and conformity. If you didn't agree with that way of thinking you were purged or put to death by their system of government.  The Puritan's of New England based much of their thinking on Calvin's institutes and the failed policies of  Geneva, Switzerland under Calvin's rule. From the first-hand accounts, Oxford's Gillian Lewis notes, "The city of Geneva possessed a significance which was symbolic and mythical. Her friends saw her as the mirror and model of true piety, a haven of refuge, a roosting-place for fledglings, a stronghold to train and dispatch abroad soldiers of the Gospel and ministers of the Word." And yet, there were enemies as well, enemies who saw Geneva as "Satan's sanctuary, a source of heresy, atheism, and libertine and a center for the active dissemination of sedition."  Just as soon as Geneva embraced the Reformation officially and severed its loyalties to the bishop and Duke of Savoy, the city was flooded with refugees from all over Europe. Over night Geneva became, after Wittenberg, Zurich, and Strasbourg, a capitol of the Protestant faith. Foreign visitors expressed amazement as they observed both the theological and practical attractions of the city.  Later, as the Puritans of New England came to re-establish the failed Geneva experiment in Boston, they envisioned a Biblical state based on the same principles Calvin attempted to rule his culture on. Quakers, Baptists, and other radicals were a threat to the "City on the Hill" vision of John Winthrop.  Truth is they did not envision "separation of church and state."  They envisioned the church and it's Presbyterian government as a good foundation for government.  They believed in bringing about the Millennial reign of Christ through the righteous governing.  Thank God our nation never adopted these views.  But many Christians in America today hold these views and want to impose them on others. 

First consider the fact that Christ gave
himself up to death on our behalf
and became ours: therefore we ought to
give up ourselves for the good of all men,
not thinking that we are our own,
but that we belong to others.- Zwingli

     These same views were held in Virginia but were embedded in the Anglican Church established by the Cavaliers. Jamestown, Virginia was a business venture with one aim in mind - the Christianizing of the first nations culture in order to enslave the indigenous population, and dispossession of the land.  When this venture failed to accomplish this goal they introduced "African Slavery" only to further their business and economic benefits for the benefit of England's king.  Ideas of building a commonwealth to sustain the loses of the Cavaliers lost lifestyle in England was the goal and vision of the founding of the Virginia colony. When the Nasemond county and eastern shores of accomacke wanted to define their faith in light of Boston they were purged and forced to move to up the Chesapeake to establish a new colony in what is now called, Annapolis, Maryland.  Virginia's idea of "liberty" was that the government is who extends you the freedom and rights of liberty.  There was no liberty of conscience or freedom of worship in Virginia's founding.  This explains why groups like the "Tea Party" holds a worldview demanding to "conformity" of their understanding of the constitution. They have become a political entity engaged to "root out" anyone who disagrees with their version of a  "America" just as much as those who are on the extreme left do.  Our political system was not built on a  right republican, Whig, democrat, or Tea Party party worldview. Nor are we a nation of just white elites, native Americans or African Americans.  We are a diverse people and have been since the beginning of our country!  To reduce everything down to one p[articular statement of faith or be aligned to one a political party platform does not constitute a legitimate form of government. Governor Berkley's Virginian spirit still prevails 400 years after the founding of America.  In my view, this view is based on an anti-Christ spirit. It's arrogant, prideful, and intolerant of other Christian interpretations of Scripture and spirit directed movements that God has used throughout our history.  Could we regain the Quaker spirit that began in William Penn's government?  Reciprocal Liberty where DISSENT is honored?

    God calls us to be salt and light to the unchurched world.  However, that salt and light is not to be based in "Colonial Imperialistic Culture!"  Pocahontas died after she was bathed, put in a proper English dress, was forced to have a hair cut, and presented as a well dressed reformed English Christianized women to the English Crown.  The national Right winged thinking held in various part of Christian Culture too often has tried to impose their "colonial views" on the greater nation rather than do what Christ called us to do (see. Matt. 28:18-20). The United States has several histories.  Euro-centric, Native American, African-American, Asian American, and Latino stories form who we are as a country regardless of those who believe in the Euro-cententic fairy-tale of America's formation. Slaughtering 50 million Native American in the name of Jesus is not my idea of a Christian nation. The truth of our national history with it's slavery, racial hatred, and purging of first nations peoples is not exactly something I think of as the good ole days.  Our nation is an an experiment!  It's a movement that is called to teach the Shites and Sunnies how to live with one another in peace.  We are called to be that kind of people.  That's why I believe that the Christian Right is losing power because it seems that they just can't move our nation backwards to the good ole days.... whatever that may have been in their minds.  It's time for us to wake up - and realise what has been said before "you can't legislate" your statement of faith in a nation that was called to be a "HOLY EXPERIMENT" based on reciprocal liberty.  This is why the "Tea Party" will never succeed and eventually come to an end. My only hope is that the Church In America will get back to reflecting what our country was called to do in the first place... "endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace - until we come into the unity of the faith!

What To Do With The Quiet Moments In Your Life

Orlando Ridout (Direct descendant of John Ridout
 who sold Kunta Kinta in Annapolis) and Bill Haley Jr.
grandson of  Alex Haley  direct descendant of Kunta Kinta
May 2,  2014

 Over the last few years, I've had the ride of a lifetime ministering around the world, speaking in very special churches and conferences.  I have had great success in building a very important ministry in Annapolis, Maryland which has been developing a "strategic prayer" initiative that has been dismantling the "principalities, powers, and wickedness" in our city. We have been experiencing serious city transformation. This has resulted in breaking the spirit of slavery off our nation through indentificational repentance and reconciliation over the slave trade here in Annapolis. Annapolis was one of America's major slave ports - which is in fact where Alex Haley's (Author Of Roots) direct ancestor Kunta Kinta was sold on September 27, 1767.  I have concluded after witnessing God work through our ministry he is now directing us to do the redemptive work on making our city a center for addressing the plight of Modern Slavery and will be using our ministry to assist in those endeavors both here and abroad.  It's just like God to take a city's sin and turn it around to "Heal America's Wounds." So what does that have to do with "The Quiet Moments" of our lives?

In May of 2010, I had a very vivid dream/vision at 3am one morning.  It was a panoramic vision of a coming revival on Gen Y and the Millennials.  In the vision I was invited to come and minister to a group of young people.  They were laying all over the floors weeping, travailing, crying out to the Lord for mercy on their lives.  The presence Of God was so thick I was afraid to move.  I have been a part of several major outpourings in my lifetime but I had never experienced something like this.  I was literally afraid to move because I didn't want to be disruptive of God's work in their lives.  I asked a person who was standing in the vision along side of me "Why was I here?"  I felt privileged to be there but didn't understand "why."  Then a voice said, "We asked for you to come to help us because you are a Father."  "You understand the moving of the Holy Spirit."  I understood immediate what God was showing me was the next move of the Holy Spirit.  It will be an intense "Crying Out" from a generation that knows absolutely nothing about the Holy Spirit."  It's almost like the people in Acts 19 who said to Paul, "We have never heard of the Holy Spirit."  The Vision also was a warning.  Leaders who have encountered the Holy Spirit in past encounters need to be careful to not  assume they know how to proceed in this next revival.  There has never been anything like it and you cannot use your "pentecostal or charismatic wares" and just due business as usual and reteach old ways. Isaiah 43:18-19 proclaims, "remember not the former things nor consider the things of old. Behold I do a new thing.  God is not going to just give our churches and ministries a new infusion to do what has been done. He is going to use only those who have been stripped of "ministry know hows" and are sensitive and intimately acquainted with the Holy Spirit... and you cannot have an intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit with the busy instagram world we live in.  That's why God is stripping down churches, leaders, dispossessing and putting extreme pressure on all of us.  He is trying to get our attention to spend time with Him.  We need to get quiet, listen, discern and prepare ourselves for the next move of the Holy Spirit.  I believe this next move will begin in about five years from now.  currently, we are in a preparation period. If you don't prepare you won't be ready for when the Lord comes. (See Matthew 25:1-13)

Although we are witnessing the prophetic fulfillment of the promises given in the 1980's of massive mega churches emerging;  God has not called the contemporary church to be reduced down to be a part of the entertainment industry. I have been privileged in years gone by to speak into major movements within the contemporary church.  It has been an honor to be a part of this past emphasis.  However, God is not in the lights.  God is not in the music - even if it makes the Billboard charts.  God is not in the preaching or the great theatre complexes or stadiums that have been filled.  It's been a blast to witness the church's growth and play a small part in it.  However, God does not dwell in temples made with hands.  He is calling us to be filled in our hearts with his presence.  That presence calls us "to put off" the old nature, and be renewed in the spirit of our minds, and "put on" Christ.  God is calling for "relational holiness." He wants us to get our lives right with Him, within ourselves, and with those we share life with.  

Brokenness and humility will be the earmarks of the next move of the Holy Spirit. No Super star Apostles, Preachers of LA, or Great mega centers of Christian entertainment.  It's all coming down. It's all going to be stripped, and "political power" will be taken away from the church so that the church of the future will have similarities of the early church.  (See Zech. 4:6) You might ask why I say this?  Because the next move of the Holy Spirit is going to lead us into a new phase of whole cities coming to Christ.  Everyone currently serving in ministry has to be retooled and prepared to minister in places and among people groups they have never been a part of to lead them to Christ, help them to become disciple-makers themselves, and turn whole cultures of godless behavior around.  It's going to take the entire "Body Of Christ" to work together for the Great Harvest coming.  No one church, no movement of churches, or denominations will be able to capture this movement of God's Spirit among the nations. Whole nations will be swept by the Spirit of God in an instant and changed.  This is not my wishful or magical thinking. It is a prophetic promise in the Bible that's about to come upon the earth before the return of Christ.  (see Hab. 2:14; Psalm 102:18; Isaiah 40:5)

I have no idea what other ministries are up to or what the latest "word" is.  What I am witnessing is extreme pressure being placed on everyone including me.  It's referred to in the Bible as a "time of atonement." God's people are being called to "get their inner world and outer worlds aligned with Him. In order for that to happen He will strip and shake everything in our lives to complete that work in us. Phil. 1:6 says, "For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus."  So,  when your world gets quiet and invitations are not being issued to have you come and be a part of the big celebrations right now... don't fret.  Get busy and use these quiet periods in your life to prepare yourself for the next period God is taking you to.  You may be called to write. You may be called to finish that theological degree.  You may be called to study, develop a prayer life or get those music lessons needed to make yourself an accomplished musician.  Whatever God is calling you to do... now is the time to take the moment to get ready.  Parties will come and go.  You're not missing out on anything because nothing is happening right now.  We are all just being called to "get quiet."  Here's a couple of cool verses: I Thessalonian 4:11 "aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands";  Psalm 75:6-7 "For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. For God is the judge! He brings one down and exalts another. " So don't worry about becoming a celebrity pastor, singer or worship leader.  James 3:16 explains to us, "For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice." God wants to kill all that self ambition in us. He's going to tear down the idol of "My purpose, My dream" emphasis because it's His purpose, His Dream, His kingdom that he's building not ours. I am glad that in all my years preaching, teaching, and being invited to be a part of great moves of the Holy Spirit in the past I've never once had to ask someone to let me come and speak on their platforms or conference.  They invited me to come - I didn't go seeking celebrity pastor status. I just want a relationship with Jesus that makes Him pleased with me. God alone is the one who promotes.  He alone calls us to a quiet place with Him so that we can be intimately acquainted with The Holy Spirit.  Prayer and His word provides the foundation we need for any work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  Right now, God is giving us a reprive from "business as usual,"  He's giving us a quiet time to retool our lives and get ready for the "move of the Holy Spirit." 

The New American Universalism and Ultimate Reconciliation

Many years ago, my dear friend John Sandford, author of the Elijah Task, shared with our church what a false prophet is.  I've certainly heard lots of teaching on the prophetic but rarely have we heard people teach how to recognize a false prophet.  Some people think that a false prophet is a person who's prophecies do not come to pass.  Other's seem to attack those who teach theological views that differ from theirs as false prophets (I.e., premillenialism, post-millenism, Amillenialism etc).   However, John Sandford shared with us a very important scriptural understanding that "a false Prophet" is not a person whose prophecies don't come to pass, rather "a false prophet" is one who comes in miracles, signs, and wonders, and teaches a false doctrine.  Notice what I said, "Teaches A False Doctrine" after performing miracles.

There is no greater "false" prophets than those who teach "ultimate reconciliation" or "universersialism" and comes with lying signs and wonders.  William Branham and George Warnock were such men in the 1940's.  Universalism nor it's "Latter Rain Movement" counterpart of ultimate reconciliation is new in North America.  Basically, Universalism is a theological position that teaches the view that all human beings and ALL fallen creatures will ultimately be restored to right relationship with God and go to Heaven.  Some main proponents include that Lucifer will ultimate be forgiven and restored also.  The two central beliefs which distinguish Christian Universalism from mainstream Christianity are universal reconciliation (all will eventually be reconciled to God without exception, the penalty for sin is not everlasting, i.e. doctrines of everlasting damnation to hell and annihilationism are rejected) and theosis (all souls will ultimately be conformed to the image of divine perfection in Christ).   Those within the Pentecost- Latter Rain Movement taught that "The works that Jesus Did we will do also, even great works than these." (John 14:12)  They continued their position by stating that "When Jesus went to Hell (as found  in Acts 2:31; Eph. 4:9) he preached to those captive in hell (I Peter 3:18-19) then led those who recieved him back with him to Paradise as he promised to do with the thief on the cross (Luke 23:42).  In other words,  Jesus went to Hell between the cross and the resurrection and liberated those who died in faith.  Likewise, according to the ultimate reconciliation teachers of "Latter Rain" who fell in this error, we too will go to hell when we die as believers.  We will then preach to those who are still in the grips and hell.  We then, like Jesus will liberate those who hear us and lead them to Heaven with us once our work in Hell is done.  Recently, among the so called "Apostles and Prophets" gatherings here in the USA it has been proclaimed by several that the Body of Christ will go to grave yards in the future and raise people, who have been dead for 30+ years, and we will be given the opportunity to preach the gospel to them and lead them to Christ so that they don't have to spend ALL of eternity in captivity.  In fact, for those of you who have been around the "Charismatic/Petecostal" streams the last twenty years would be shocked at who is involved in teaching these heresies.  I'd like to believe there is no "Hell" too.  But, the scriptures neither teach ALL will be saved nor does it say anywhere we get a second chance for salvation after death.  

In a recent turn of events, even though the damage has been done, Rob Bell, the evangelical pastor who wrote the book "Love Wins" that has been a lightning rod for promoting Universalism, stated clearly in a recent interview that he believes in hell and no longer believes that everyone will be saved. (See: http://www.christianpost.com/news/rob-bell-i-believe-in-hell-now-and-after-you-die-49660/ ).  I wonder if Oprah would host him again to hear his new found positions.  

If you look into the Bio's of most who hold to these "fantasies" of no "Hell" or eternal punishment for rejecting Christ as their Lord, you find they never went to any credible or finished their theological seminary or got the necessary biblical or historical development of theology necessary to guide the Body Of Christ.  That's why most of these "so called" apostles/prophets find themselves in such heresey.  I'm growing quite concerned about the growing apostasy from those who have left the scriptures for their progressive revelations and beyond. I think it's time for the "church" to come to grips that just because we are called to reach popular culture doesn't mean that we are to preach a different gospel.  The culture may not like what the scrpitures teach but that does not make the "truth" of God's word relevative or subject "going beyond the scripitural norms" to fit our "post-modern" private interpretations.  Truth is truth.  Jesus died so that we do not have to go to Hell.  Reject Jesus you go to HELL.  If I'm wrong - no loss.  If it's true-  your loss!  Sorry!  The most important thing to recognize about those who are teaching and promoting this heresey is nowhere was there any mention of the Cross, Christ’s propitiation for our sins, the Resurrection, the Ascension, Pentecost or St Paul’s exhortations to the churches in their writings, teachings, or public expressions of their damnable heresies which are giving false hope to those who want to live their lives without any interference to their sinful pleasures.