Happy Monday!

Today is Heavens birthday… I pray for her while she sleeps, knowing how excited she gets about birthdays… that she will wake up and have the day of her life. Father God, I pray a blessing over my children right now… asking you to place your hands on their heads while they sleep… speak to them in dreams… and when they wake speak to them with your Spirit. I pray for them to KNOW your voice and KNOW your direction for their lives… that they would not live in confusion. May they both continue to serve you with all their hearts as they step over the threshold into adulthood. I entrust them into your hands and I have great confidence in your ability to KEEP them on the path of righteousness!

As I pray this morning, I pray for tomorrow nights Bethel Harvest Youth Camp… I want the night session to be unprecedented… that worship would produce a glimpse of eternity and my message would birth a MOVEMENT in the hearts of those young adults! I still remember the prophecy spoken over my life by Prophet Ed Traut of South Africa… and I pray that maybe tomorrow night would be the beginning of that greater effectiveness among our young! I pray that my heart will be more attuned to Gods voice than usual… and that I would be able to SEE what EYES cannot see… that I would be able to CALL THEM OUT just like Jesus called his 12… that they too would CARRY SOMETHING away from tomorrow nights meeting… something that would STILL BE BURNING 2000 years from tomorrow, should the earth remain!

Todays Inspirational message: Our Founding Manifesto!

Mark 16:15-18 He said to them, “Go into all the world and PREACH THE GOOD NEWS to all creation. 16WHOEVER BELIEVES and is baptized WILL BE SAVED, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17And THESE SIGNS will accompany those who believe: In my name THEY will drive out demons; THEY will speak in new tongues; THEY will pick up snakes with their hands; and when THEY drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; THEY will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”

A few weeks ago, Emily and I were talking about life and ministry and she said something that triggered a new wave of thoughts… a wave I’m still riding today. Here’s what Emily Said, “Most people are bored with Christianity because we are not DOING the right things with our faith.” She commented about the JOY of leading unbelievers to Christ… and how Jesus had left his church with the task of EVANGELIZING the lost world. Emily said she believes there is something inside of EVERY believer that LONGS for SPIRITUAL REPRODUCTION!

We talked about how so many Christians want EXPERIENCES without RESPONSIBILITY. Todays RADICAL church seems to desire more and more SPIRITUAL ENCOUNTERS… while most of us have done very little over the past decade or more to convert the lost. I guess this brings up the question… what is the mission of the church?

Jesus started a MOVEMENT… and over the course of 2000 years, humanity has taken HIS MOVEMENT and turned it into a RELIGION. I believe God longs for this modern church to REDISCOVER OUR FOUNDING MANIFESTO… and REIGNITE OUR DORMANT MOVEMENT!

Our mission SHOULD be the very same mission of Jesus… the very same mission Jesus passed on to his disciples. Jesus told the whole world EXACTLY WHY HE WAS HERE:

Luke 19:10 For the Son of Man came to SEEK and SAVE those who are LOST.

1 John 3:8 8 He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For THIS PURPOSE the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.

Herein is contained the church’s FOUNDING MANIFESTO: That we too would CONTINUE what Jesus began! That we would be BAPTIZED WITH THE GREAT COMMISSION… and BOLDNESS TO PREACH THE GOOD NEWS TO ALL CREATION! That we too would DESTROY the activities of the devil in our 21st century world!

The people of todays world need to be RESCUED from godlessness. They long for us to REACH them! So many of them WANT TO BELIEVE. They wait for us to shed off our selfish version of Christianity where the entire focus is on the SPIRITUAL ENCOUNTER we’re having instead of the ETERNAL LIFE we’re giving away.

I realize that this blog is incomplete in so many ways and it’s very preachy… I just felt inspired to lay some of my raw and unedited thoughts out there for you guys to consider. Please take a few minutes to think about the meaning of life today… think about how short life is… think about eternity… think about the great big world and all the people who don’t yet have the pleasure of knowing Christ like you do… think about your own boredom with todays Christianity… and how much more LIVELY this whole thing can become IF we were to reenlist in the GREATEST COMMISSION EVER!

I pray that todays blog triggers thoughts that add tremendous value to your amazing lives! We are the salt of the earth… a city set on a hill! Let’s shine out… all day long! God bless you guys!

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Good Monday Everyone!

I’m in my family room listing to a Kent Henry Worship Instrumental… feeling pretty overwhelmed with God’s love right now. How can I explain moments like these in human language? Every once in a while, the reality of God sweeps through my heart and mind… my eyes water, a tear slowly make its way down my cheek, chills pop all over my body… and I sit in that moment wishing it would last forever!

Like the alignment of sun, moon, and earth that brings us the rarity of an eclipse… these spiritual moments occur through the rare alignment of certain spiritual occurrences. And when they all come together at one special moment… their rarity is felt and appreciated for some time!

I suppose for me today… the components of my experience are very obvious! It begins with the Washington DC Outreach. This year, even more than previous years… I really experienced the enormity of what took place! There are so many hurting, lonely people in our earth. And while so many well to do humans point the finger down at these bleeding ones, God compels us to come to their aid! God cares about each one of them… not desiring to lecture them about the series of wrong turns they made that led them down into the gutter… He possesses us with his compassion and sends us to kneel down beside them… He gives us a message to speak… He asks us to read them a love letter… And we go with his love and his tears. He embraces them with MY ARMS… and I can feel HIM IN ME making his appeal through MY HEART.

This year, we took a team of 35+ into the frigid streets of our nation’s capitol. All day long, we gave HOPE to the HOPELESS. Even more than the message we gave them was the message we asked them to tell us. We gave them our ears… we listened to them like they mattered… and they FELT OUR LOVE FOR THEM! Their tears and ours flowed like rivers all day long.

On man “Alfrado” explained how he came to America from Elsalvador… it took him 3 months to get here, dreaming that this would be a place of new life for him. And there he was sleeping on park benches and eating food from the trash containers. Alfrado said that some nights, it’s so cold he is scared to fall asleep… that he may freeze to death and not wake up.

Another lady “Pricilla” said that she just got released from prison a year ago after being stabbed in her spine during a prison brawl. She grabbed me and made a puddle on my shoulder as she wept about how scary it is living on the streets at night! She talked about being raped and beaten over and over… and told me that she is not built for this kind of life!

Then there was “HANK”… the happiest homeless man on the face of the earth. We all left Hank wondering if we had met an angel! Just like Hank, so many of these destitute men and women gave us back so much more that we gave to them!

Throughout this day, we distributed hundreds of sandwiches, care packages, sweaters, sweatshirts, blankets, and everything else we could get into their hands. More than these… we gave them Jesus… and they took him happily into their hearts! Every single person on our team stepped out with a fearless kind of faith… they shared their personal life stories, prayed like seasoned ministers, and gave LOVE as if God himself was right there in physical manifestation!

Special thanks to Evangelist Gerald & Phyllis Mayhan for being our homeless outreach GUIDES… for their passion, their humor, and their love!

Beyond the DC Outreach, God is warming my heart today with the nearness I feel with my wife and kids, the accuracy I feel in the message I have been preaching at DFC, and the awesomeness of Gods Word stored up in my heart after reading the bible cover to cover in 66 days! All of these things have come together this morning to BLESS ME with a very SPIRITUAL MOMENT. To God be the glory for all of this… and for filling my life with his amazing love! I pray that he will work in all of us more and more… and more and more! That we will RISE AND SHINE in 2009… that we will love living the life of a beautiful people in a CITY ON A HILL… SHINING for the entire world to see!

Check out the DFC webcast archive from yesterday morning to watch more on the DC Outreach… and to catch the rest of that amazing service! Chat with you guys later on…

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