Triple 7 soul

Another thursday night

The picture doesn't do the experience any justice...

So every thursday night we have church at my house.  When jesus says, "were 2 or 3 are gathered there Iam in the midst ", He wasn't kidding.  Every week God does something cool!

Unfortunately, we live in a culture that demands so much time and focus.  90% of the time we're so wrapped up in the things of the world that when God does something cool, we miss it.  People even wonder, "is God still around"?  Well, of course he is, but when Jesus says, knock and the door will be open, seek and you will find, again He wasn't kidding.  You have to make a conscious decision to devote time to what means a lot to him.

Jesus was very adamant about his family meeting together in an intimate setting.  In fact in the bible when the believers met in his name, it says that many wonders were happening and the church was added to daily.  People were getting saved!  How do you know if they are saved!  When people got saved in the Bible they did what Jesus asked them to do.... they got Baptized!  But baptism doesn't save you!  Soooo what!  If you wanna give your life to Christ, be baptized!

Why do we have to complicate things. Jesus said, "Go into all the world and make disciples... baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and teach them to obey my commands", Period!!! 

Last night as we gathered around, the opening prayer was, "Lord speak through every believer in this group tonight".  As we began to discuss the idea of grace, the Lord led us to various passages and deep discussions.  In the middle of the discussion,  Someone exclaimed, "I dont know if I'm saved". 

Its amazing what happens when you trust Jesus to lead the group.  The man who said this was a friend of Stevies whom he met at an NA meeting.  Jesse had been going to church seeking God for months, yet never had the opportunity to open up to express his insecurty.  Immediately, we began to minister to him concerning salavation.  As we discussed, I metioned baptism as a solid way of anchoring the assurance of salvation.  Just then, Dave speaks up and says, "there is a pool out back, why not tonight". 

Then we took him to the book of Acts and explained to him the story of phillip and the eunuch.  If you don't know the story read Acts chapter 8.  After reading the story jesse said, "can i get baptized tonight"?  Without hesitation me, Big E, and Stevie put on some shorts and head for the freezing cold water. 

As were getting dressed my stepson says, what is baptism? After explaining to him, he also desides to get baptised.  Big E was so exited, he did a cannon ball in the 42 degree pool.  It was so cold in the water your body feels like its on fire.  However, through the Holy Spirit it almost felt comforting....

Such an amazing night.  Afterwards we all laughed and enjoyed each others fellowship.  I can't stress enough, if you are faithful to the commands of Christ, he will bless you tremendously...

 

 

Whirlwind 2011

The year 2011 for me was oone of the worst years of my life.  I've been through many struggles in my life.  My parents divorced when i was five.  i still remember the physical fighting and the sadness of a broken family.  In my early twenties i went through the sadness of drug addiction, which landed me in prison.  in my early thirties I endured being sidelined by a broken kneck, leading to anxiety and depression.  all of these experiences were very difficult.  However, in 2011 I had my worst experience yet.

For the first 7 years of my christian life i worked hard to become a full time servant of the gospel.  I worked full time, went to school part time, did ministry part time, while raising a family.  Those years were very hard, but I did well in school, ministry had always been fruitful, and my family was well takin care of.  In 2002 I finally became a pastor and experienced some really great things.  In 2007, I finally planted 777 church and all the hard work began to pay off. 

Many people came to faith in christ.  most of them unchurched.  I've always had a passion to see God build a church upon new converts, rather than recycling unhappy christians from other churches.  The experience was great!  New believers transformed and growing in relationship with Christ and his family. 

in 2010 my marraige began falling apart. I did everything possible to hold it together.  From couseling, to stepping back more from ministry, to compromising some of my own convictions.  But,  in the end it was out of my control and the marraige ended in 2011.

The bummer is, I built my whole world upon the hope of the church.  I opted out of social security under the assumption that if anything ever happend to me the church would provide.  I was inelligable for unemployment, had no job and ended up losing everything. My home, my church community, my career as a pastor, my wife, my kids, my credit; and it seemed like everyone i loved deeply abandoned me. 

Ironically in my despare the ones who came to my rescue were those in the world.  I was given 20000 to start a tattoo business, but because i was so messed up i couldn't pull it off.  I was then given a job laboring construction, by an m.c. president of the vagos.  These people have not yet commited to christ, but they seem to get it more than those who can say,  "bless you my sanctified brother".  Was God trying to show me something? Has the love of the church grown cold? Did God just abandon me too?  Of course not!  Thats another day, another post or another book. 

All that to say 2011 was hard.  As the dust began to settle, I started seeing the hand of God working in the midths.  Slowly but surely, everything I'd lost was being restored in more prestine condition.  I'm now remarried to a wonderful women, i have an amazing place to live, a new baby on the way,  An awesome new church family, a revised mission from God and I'm working on getting to spend half of the time with my kids.

I'm so amazed at Gods grace! He's taken me to another level of understanding and for that I'm thankful.  The Apostle Paul said:

(phil.4:12-13), "I know how to be abased  and know how to abound.  Everywhere and in all things i have learned both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and to suffer need.  i can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

I'm definately not there yet, but much closer than I've ever been and it's a great feeling.