God is not scary nor is He a control freak.

This week Danny Silk was teaching our class. Danny is the Bethel Church staff Family Life Pastor and has an international ministry to families. He uses a lot of multimedia in his presentations. He was showing us a clip of a television commercial. It was a scene of a car slowing descending a gentle green mountain road down a peaceful plush green slope. Then suddenly a really scary face appears on the full width and height of the screen. All 730 of us in class jumped and hollered out. Then when we realized what had been done to us, we started laughing. Danny was showing us what our body and mind do to us when we are afraid. It was very negative. He expressed how we are not at our best when we are surrounded by an environment of fear.

Danny shared with us the profound difference between fear and the awe of God. My friends, some of us have been duped by religious tradition. We have had law preached, pretending to be grace. We have been told that God is out to punish us for our sins. Do you believe in any way that God has, is, or will punish you for your sins? Think about that. It seems that some preachers have forgotten about the change in the covenant. I guess they do not realize that the law was our schoolmaster to point us to Christ, but now we are under a covenant of grace.

Danny talked about how most people use fear and control to manipulate those around them. This is especially true for many men towards their wife and children. This is not how Father God is. He said that perfect love casts out fear. He is perfect love therefore he only casts out fear and has nothing to do with putting fear on you or using any person to do so. The Bible says that God has not given us a spirit of fear but love, power, and a sound mind. Do you think that God is bi-polar? It sure seems that many Pastors and Christians think this is true. To think that God wants any element of fear in your life, just simple is not true.

It is no wonder that Christians think God is the big controller in the sky. Churches give a big list of do's and do nots that we must follow to stay in good standing. Most of these things on that list have nothing to do with God and are nothing more than a form of control. God put two trees in the garden and gave the first man and women a choice. He does not force his opinion on you about who you should marry but He gives you a choice. He does not burn the earth up because of the sin of abortion because he has given us a choice. You could kill your neighbor and it is very unlikely that God will intervene because He gives us a choice. There are times when God will intervene but it has to do with issues that would alter history. I am not saying that we should choose sin but choose from doing God's Word, as it is the right choice. I am just saying we can choose without a bolt of lightning hitting us.

After hearing Danny Silk speak I took my wife out to a nice restaurant and apologized to her for 30+ years of controlling her with my anger or frustrations. That process of change began a year ago as I began to listen to teaching, by Bethel Church's senior leader Bill Johnson, and others in the same stream of Kingdom teaching. For that last 3 years Saundi had wanted to leave Honduras to be with family and our home church. I resisted those changes for all of those years. Saundi suffered a great deal during this time. I justified her suffering by using my holy anger to emphasis "our call" that God had put on our life. She would tearfully explain that she did not feel called. I would tell her with great sternness and elevated conviction that she was called to be my wife and to follow "our" call that God had given us. My friends, I have learned that I could not be any more wrong. Yes, I am called as a missionary to the nations but there are ways of doing that and still fulfill my wife's needs. I do not know how many times I have told people that family comes first and then your ministry. I thought I was doing that. I was not. The Lord has begun to bring understanding to my spirit which I would like to share with you.

So how do I fulfill my call and also meet my wife's needs? I do not know what that looks like yet, so let me backup a bit and share just how I can find out how this looks. I have tried to fulfill the great commission but I have failed to fulfill the great commandment. If love is the answer then how do I love her and others? Well, the answer sounds like it should be to love God first, then love my wife and children, my friends, and then my work or ministry. Maybe you, like me, have believed this half-truth.

You probably know the single commandment that we have. <<>> Yes, you are to love God first of all but who is next? Nope, it is not your neighbor. Maybe read the above verse again as there are three objects listed. This single command is repeated 7 times in the New Testament. I do not know any other command given more times. It says to love yourself second! All the commands of the law were to show you that you could not be good enough without God but at least you had a chance if you could just obey each precept. Now we have a single command, which is impossible to fulfill. This would then make Christianity, as we have know it, impossible to live and completely invalid.

So what is the solution? How can I live a Christian life? God has made it impossible without living out of His presence by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Bible says that the letter kills but the Spirit gives life. The answer is in the Father's love. Many of us are at a great disadvantage because our natural Father gave us a distorted view of love. Maybe he was an angry controller that forced submission. Many men have never experienced intimacy with God which means they have never experienced intimacy with their wife either.

The Father's intimate love is available to us the moment we receive the forgiveness of Christ for our sins and we ask Him to receive us into His Kingdom. This is when the Spirit of Christ comes into our heart and causes a new birth. We become a new creation in Christ. We have asked forgiveness and have asked Jesus to be the Lord of our life.

Now the process of enjoying the Father's love was to begin, but in most cases, instead, a lie started. You were given a list of rules instead of an example of the Father's love. You were lied to by religious tradition entering into the culture of “doing for God” to get rewards from your Christian friends and from God. If you mess up then rewards are withdrawn and words of judgment flow from your Christian friends and God is mad at you.

So how do I gain God's favor? How do I get Him to move on my behalf? Maybe if I pray long enough, if I read many chapters in the Bible, if I go out on outreach, witness to everyone at work, help in the soup kitchen, or better yet, go into the ministry. Guess what? None of the above will give the desired cause and effect. You will not gain one micro-bit of favor with God by doing any of the above. In fact you can not possible gain any favor with God by doing anything. You are already his favorite! Let me repeat, you are already His favorite!

The entire purpose of God's plan was to reveal His love to you. If God loves you, then you can love yourself, also! If God, the creator of all, can love you regardless of your shortcomings, then you can also love yourself. He thinks you are awesome so that makes you awesome! He thinks you are his prince or princess, so you are. The Bible says that in His presence there are pleasures, evermore. What, God gives us pleasure? Oh yes my friends, He does. Oh how He does!

I meet my wife’s needs by living in a culture of love. I love Kenton because he is lovable. I am awesome! The love of God has made me that way. God sings love songs to me and I sing them back to Him. Because I am a man of love, that is what I have in my heart to give away. I do not need to use fear to control others, as that would be the opposite of who I am. How could I ever put down my wife or children? If I tried to do so the conflict, between who I am and what I am saying to them, would scream in my ear. The Father's love has caused me to love myself so I can only love them the same. This is the fulfillment of the great commandment. This is the answer to many of our questions. This is the plan of God. Anything that does not flow out of this, just simply will not be part of my life.

God is love. The Father God is an awesome lover of his man (male and female). Adam fell and women was put under his thumb. Christ died and was raised then she became part of his side again. Side by side they walk together in the same love of the Father. They are equal partners in the walk of Faith. One is usually physically stronger but both our strong in Christ.

Ask God to fill you afresh with his Holy Spirit to allow His anointed self-love to fill your being and flow as a river to others. Ask Him to pour out His gifts on you and flood you with His presences.

Oh how I love Jesus and I am in deep awe of Him!

A US Coast Guard boatsman mate beat me up!

Many of you have heard my testimony of growing up with a violent and abusive (in every way) father. My 3 sisters and I experienced a very dark childhood until my father was killed in a car wreck when I was fourteen. Our grandparents took custody of us and provide a safe haven for a few years. During these years I was very angry and fancied myself in the marshal arts although I never really had official training. In order to eat I would steal lunches from my classmates. I would often be in school yard and after school fights. We were on welfare most of the time up to when our grandparents took custody of us. I will spare most of the details.

I entered into the US Coast Guard Reserves at 17 years old an angry and confused young man. After graduating from High School I went into active duty service in the USCG. I remember one day at the base club drinking a considerable amount of draft beer. I was bragging about my marshal arts ability when a Boatsman Mate 3rd Class Petty Officer told me he would fight me. He was a big guy that worked on a buoy tender pulling buoys out of the ocean for repair. We faced off and I grabbed his shirt to throw him with a Karate move. I tore all the buttons off his shirt but he did not move! Now he was really mad! I punched but nothing landed. He then turned me into a punching bag. I went down and he advised me that I owed him a new shirt. I paid and that was the very last fight I was in. Although it would be 2 more years before I received Christ I also quit drinking.

We live in a world of control. The strong win. We exalt the great athletic by paying him/her millions of dollars per year. The tall handsome man or sexy women wins the job interview. The smooth talking salesman wins the deal. Sex is exalted to sell products in almost every commercial. Politicians lie to convince us to vote for them so they can take office and decide what we believe by voting based on what they believe. Christians are made to look like fools in secular media.

I believe that religion may have the biggest control issue of all. Most denominational churches have a certain list of values (rules) that you must follow to be part of them. If you believe something outside of their belief system then you are out. In some groups if you go to a movie or a dance you are out. Then there are the non-denominational churches which have their own control issues. The Pastor has a huge gatherings of followers. They will protect their own right not to be a denomination by their own set of rules to follow in the name of being free. If someone disagrees with their list of allowed freedoms then they are out of the freedom club. I am sure you can make your own extensive list of times when you were controlled by someones religious beliefs. I am not saying that there should not be standards but at least we should make those standards based on the grace taught by the Bible. Grace has a built in ability to accomplish what it requires but the law does not.

Here at "Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry" one of our core values is empowerment instead of control. We are learning that the purpose of ministry is to empower. If we are resolving a conflict and the parties do not leave empowered then the goal has not been reached. The conflict may have been solved but it is likely that a new conflict will arise based on the same issue. If you correct someone without empowering them they will not overcome. Any change is only based on control and the inconvenience it would cause them to not submit. When you teach someone to drive and they are always in the passengers seat then they will never learn how to drive. They will know the theory but will not be able to safely put it into practice. We must give them the tools they need to know how to drive and then let them get behind the steering wheel. If you have done a good job empowering then they will have a really good chance of success. If they mess up you are there to help. Later you can sit back, watch your favorite football team, while they run to the store to get some more chips and Pepsi.

This will work at all levels of life. Look at the life of Christ. He always empowered his disciples. This is the message of grace. This grace empowers us to overcome sin. He empowers us to love. If Christian were to begin this Kingdom lifestyle then they would silence their critics. Build a church based on acceptance that empowers people to be more than they thought possible.

Pray over your children and ask... how can I empower them? Where am I trying to control them? Of course the age of your children will dictate the amount of empowerment you can give. You probably should not send your 3 years old out after chips and Pepsi with the family car. I just finished one of our assigned books by Kris Vallotton, "Purity, The New Moral Revolution". This book would empower your teenager to live a pure life and give the most precious gift of virginity to their spouse on their wedding day. Even if they have already messed up then restoration can take place and they can still provide this precious gift on their wedding day.

If you are an employer or supervisor then you can stop controlling and start empowering. Be warned though you will get promotions and be voted boss of the year. This may be more fame than you are ready to handle. Go into business to empower others. Give them the ability to make a living for their family and smile when they come home each night.

Empowerment instead of control is a core value that the body of Christ is starving to learn. Can you image a Christianity that gives honor to people while empowering them to be the best that they can be? How can you empower someone today? One idea is to start listening to them and look for opportunities to bless, honor, and empower them. Maybe you need to increase your tool set to be able to empower others. When a problem arises ask yourself how you can honor and empower in this situation. When doing life always look for an opportunity to empower others.

I once was arrested and put in jail!

Yes, it is true, I have been to jail. I don't remember the date or exactly the year but say about 1985. I was protesting an abortion clinic by participating in a sit-in. I was handcuffed and taken to jail. My friend, Tom, came and bailed me out. The Ohio Franklin County Assistant District Attorney dropped my case but some of the other 100+ lawbreakers were not so blessed.

At the time I truly believed the Lord spoke to me about going and participating in the civil disobedience act. It seemed like an honorable act but today I am not so sure it was. The Christian community gave me accolades on how brave I was. Was it really an act bravery or was I just to chicken to take a risk and get involved with helping with an unwed mothers ministry? Did it honor the Lord to basically have no affect on the life of an unborn child? No matter how evil you think an abortion doctor is, he truly thinks he is helping those children or adults that have become pregnant. A Christians believes no matter what mistake was made, no matter how inconvenient, abortion is the taking of a human life. So what do we do? The answer has to do with honor.

To give honor to someone or a group does not require that we agree with everything they do. We can abhor the acts of the abortion doctor but still give honor to the medical profession. I am not suggesting that a doctor that has chosen the abortion profession is worthy of honor for what he is doing but many times I have heard Christian speak poorly of our local hospital. Maybe it is time for us to give honor and speak Kingdom words over our local businesses and governments.

I am wondering how many Christians would open their extra bedroom to the expecting mother? How many would lend some of their savings account to help the unwed mother in distress? What would happen if all of us began to give honor and love to the point that it would cost us something? I am using an unwed mother for an example but there are many more ways we can bring honor to our community. Just get together and ask the question... what can we do for our community to bring honor?

What about your Pastor, do you honor him/her? I know your Pastor receives a salary but have you every given him an envelope with some money in it just to honor him/her with an extra blessing? Here at Bethel Church and in the school of ministry whenever someone steps up to the pulpit we all stand to our feet and applaud, whistle, and make a lot of noise in appreciation. We give honor because we are honorable. This is one of our core values. The speaker does not insist on this response but receives it as an honorable person would. As I am learning to honor something is happening in my spirit. I believe I am becoming more honorable. This gives honor to the Lord. Matthew 25 says that when you have done it to the least of these you have done it to me. This is a Kingdom principle that when we bless His people it blesses Him.

Do you give honor to the rich of your community? How about the successful businessman or businesswoman? They provide jobs. They build really big homes that cost millions of dollars. Does that seem wasteful? What does it take to build that home? Does it not employee carpenters, plumbers, electricians, painters, etc.? I guess we could tax the rich so they are not able to provide these jobs to the community. They can give their money to the government abyss instead of you. I wonder who came up with that idea? It does not seem to honor them very well for their hard work that has lead to their success.

I would like to suggest that we begin to speak words of honor over others. Tell them how awesome they are. Instead of expressing your needs like a child began to use understanding words to express your need and understand the needs of others. You do not need to preach to win souls. They will begin to hang around you just to hear those loving words one more time then you will be able to sow the Word of Life into the seed of their heart.

Arm Wrestling match: Calvinism vs Arminianism

I would like to start to share about giving honor to each other. Does anyone see the scriptural problem with the title of this blog entry? If you call yourself in one of these camps then you may have a problem. If you are a baby Christian then don't worry, all is well. You are where the Lord expects you to be as he knows you will be growing. For the rest of us that think we are a mature Christian let me say that may not be as true as you think. Can a divided body function as it should? Can we be a mature Christian if we are divided?

Well maybe you have not figured out yet where I am going with this. The Apostle Paul said,
"1 Cor. 1:12 Now this I say, that every one of you said, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. 13Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were you baptized in the name of Paul? ". (emphasis added)
Now, if you call yourself after some group or denomination you just may be classified as a divided Christian or a Christian still walking by the flesh.

I believe it is time to drop the labels and take up the cross and follow Christ. Of course the cross alone is not our call. What? Blaspheme! Actual the opposite could be blaspheme. Some quote Paul when he said that he preaches nothing but the cross and say something like, "In my ministry I only preach the cross". They have missed Paul's point. He preached on many more topics than the cross as the New Testament is filled with his teachings. The point is that all teaching must have its foundation at the cross. Our call is to start at the cross to begin our walk in the resurrection life of Jesus Christ. The cross is the price to walk out of the empty tomb. If we do not preach and live out of the resurrection power of Christ then there is no point in salvation. We would just be serving another dead prophet.

It is not about labels it is only about Jesus Christ. He is our everything and the source of every twitch of our life muscle. I am not a Calvinist, an Armenian nor anything inbetween. I am a born-again follower of Jesus Christ known as a Christian. Let us take a risk and begin to live a mature life of walking in the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus according to Romans 8.

Here at "Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry" we are learning to walk in love and give honor to all Christian faiths even if they do not agree with us. Honor is one of our core values. We give honor because we are honorable. Even if we call ourselves by some name we have the same foundation of the forgiveness of sin by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I do not think being part of a denomination with common core beliefs is bad in any way I just think we should, as they say, reach across the aisle and work together to bring God's love to this world.

fake apology, I'm a drug addict

During orientation this week at "Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry" they were talking about drinking and cigarette use. They ask people to be very careful with drinking so that one would not even start to be tipsy and to be sure not to offend someone that may have a problem with alcohol abuse. This may be surprising to some or even shocking to others as the prevalent Christian doctrine is that drinking alcohol is a sin. The issue is that the bible does not teach this doctrine. It teaches not to drink if it offends your brother but then again it teaches the same about meat and most Christians are not vegetarians. BSSM has a different opinion on cigarettes as it is an addiction. Their point is if you are praying for someone for release from an addiction and they smell cigarettes on you then the other person may wonder how you can have power to pray for them when you have an obvious addition. Does that mean God can not use someone that smokes? It does not mean that but we are learning a culture with very different core values which includes practicing what we preach. This can be summed up in the core value of honesty.

Well, I have been for a long time drug addict. My drug of choice is caffeine. Not that caffeine is bad just the abuse of it is wrong. At one point I had a 30 cup per day habit. I had cut back to a mere 10-15 cups. I know this is a socially acceptable addition and welcomed among the Christian community. Some people can drink a cup or two a day and be fine. More power to them but 2 cups per day... what would be the point? I started Friday going cold-turkey off of caffeine. OK, I know, that does not sound very wise but I have tried the cut back method and it did not work for me. I had no idea how bad it would be! By mid-afternoon I had such a bad migraine that I was nauseated. I tried to make it to the bathroom but only manged a trashcan halfway there. This was in the middle of our first small group meeting so I left a slightly bad impression. Saturday was most miserable. Sunday was a little better, and today is a lot better.

I sent an email to our revival group leader with an apology. I explained in great detail. I learned something though from his response. His response was only "Apology accepted". That was it. Nothing like, hey no problem, we understand, no need for an apology, you are really something because after all of that you came back to class, and came to the required night meeting to boot. I thought, "Apology accepted?". I realized that my apology was nothing more than trying to excuse my poor performance. I also realized that my revival group leader knew that I wanted the other response. My main goal was to make myself look better and my revival group leader was not fooled. My fake apology is contrary to our core value of honesty. I do not take this lightly and seek no respect for recognizing the issue.

This lesson is of great value to me. It is starting to shape a need in me. I do not need to perform nor be self-justified. In the culture of love I am empowered to be who God made me without trying to be what others want me to be. If I truly did offend then I need to deal with it from a heart of humility with a true apology motivated by love. There was nothing wrong with my apology, it needed to be done, but with the correction motivation of really being sorry for the disruption in class and the mess I made at the hall trashcan.

no shoes, no shirt, no service, no sinners

We share "I am just a sinner saved by grace." with those we are witnessing to or affirmation of our humility among our Christian friends. The Bible says that the prideful shall be humbled and the humble shall be lifted up. We want to be humble and certainly don't want to make the same mistake that Lucifer did to be banned forever from heaven.

I find the phrase "I am just a sinner saved by grace" curious considering how often we allow sinners in the church just long enough for them to be saved and then if they should sin as a saint we take them to the altar to repent and if they continue then we lead them to the back door. Does anyone else think this is a double standard? I'm just a sinner saved by grace but if you sin there is no more grace. There is something else that really confuses me. If once saved always saved then should we not always be very welcome in the church?

In the Bible some 630 times sinners are called sinners, some 230 times sinners are called saints but exactly 0 times saints are called sinners. So if the bible does not call the redeemed sinners then why do we? Oh yes, Romans 7, seems like we should read Romans 8 to interpret Romans 7.

I do not see calling myself a sinner as an indication of my humility. A missionary friend once explained to me what humility is. Humility is not a person that looks at the building that he built and says how bad it is but humility is the person that looks at a building another person built and says how great it is.

Our instructor here at "Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry", Chris Vallotton, shared how he was teaching a seminar and sharing how awesome we are and how much God thinks we are awesome and how much that brings honor and glory to God. One leader challenged him and said he believes that kind of teaching only leads to pride. Chris pointed at a painting and started to criticize the art work. This leaders asked him what the point was. Chris asked, "Have I brought honor and glory to the artist of the painting?". The leader said, "No!". Chris then said, "God painted you!".

Is it possible that the church may have been deceived into believing a lie about itself? It seems better said that we were sinners but now we are saved by grace. Should we continue to make the blood of Christ a cheap sacrifice? Should we continue to call ourselves something that God does not call us? If we want to walk in humility then maybe we should begin to say what God says about us. We are saved, righteous, full of Him, full of grace, and full of love! Yes we sin but not because we are subject to the nature of sin but because of disobedience. We repent of disobedience as we continue to walk in righteousness.

The bible says in Galatians 2:20 "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: ..." If I call myself a sinner then I would be calling Christ a sinner. Not good, as in really bad! I do not call myself a sinner but an awesome new creation in Christ. My humility is based on knowing the source of my salvation not on my performance. Is this not the message of the Kingdom of God?

I once stayed overnight on a rock ledge

One of my hobbies as a teenager was rock climbing. We even had rock climbing instruction in biology class. No kidding! Our biology teacher took the class rock climbing as part of our exploration of the world.

One time two of my friends and I did a two day climb. We were scaling a vertical cliff in Washington State. We had brought our sleeping bags and just before dark we found a ledge about 3 foot wide to sleep on. We used some pitons or hex-nuts and secured ourselves to the ledge and climbed into our sleeping bags. I actually don't remember sleeping much as I forgot my pillow.

Does this sound like a risk you would like to take? Maybe for a few crazy people the answer is sure but for the rest you may be asking; Why would anyone do that? Well some people thrive on risk. This is probably not healthy but without some risk you will not change.

Think about Peter as he foolishly asked Jesus if he could walk on the water to meet up with him. (1) Most of us, seeing Jesus on the water, would either hide in fear or cheer on our hero to do what we could never do. Not Peter, he took a risk. Everyone talks about how Peter sank and Jesus held him up. Yes, this is a great visual for us to learn to lean on Jesus during the storm of life but I like to remember that he was walking on the water before and after he began to sink. I tried to walk on water on one occasions. Even though there were no distracting storms I sank like a rock not even a slow decent but just like the song, splash, splash I'm taken a bath. You might prefer learning from others mistakes but if Peter did not take a risk he would not have felt the hand of Jesus grab him and pull him up. It does not say Peter climbed on the back of Jesus for the trip back to the boat. Hand in hand he strolled back to the boat maybe with a little swagger in his step. I doubt that the other disciples dared to say anything about the sinking part of the experience. I can hear them saying, "Hey, that Peter, he rocks!"

If you are living a Christian life without risk then I dare say you are living well below your potential. But what if I fail? Here at Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry we have an actual documented requirement that we must fail at least 3 times before we can graduate. Of course this is not moral failures but failure trying to step out but coming short. When we take risk we learn from failure but if we keep trying we will succeed. It took Thomas Edison approximately 10,000 experiments and 700 apparent failures before he succeeded at inventing the light bulb. That is 700 failures in the eyes of his peers before he changed the world (2). If we want to be a world changer then we must first embrace failure as a stepping stone to success and celebrate the failures and successes of those in a sphere of influence.

References:
(1) Matthew 14:28
(2) http://www.wilywalnut.com/Fail-Fast-Success-Failure-Wonderful-Edison.html