I met Jessica last summer in a Texas Government class at ACC. I offered her a ride home one day after class, and that was how our friendship began. We began studying together a couple times a week. Soon I met her roommates Lily, Pearla, and her sister Joyce. I love all these chicas so much!

Last February, God gave me a dream about Lily. In the dream, there were about 30 Latino students together in a living room, and Lily was leading them as a house church. After I dreamt this, I called Lily right away asking to meet up. We got together and I shared the dream with her and told her God was calling her as a spiritual leader in the Hispanic community. I think she was a little surprised because she didn’t really know God at the time. But this led me and these roommates to start meeting up to read God’s Word and get to know him.

Lily has really gotten to know God over the past few months, and she has a close relationship with Jesus now. She said that she prays to him and trusts him in every life difficulty, and he always comes through! Just last week, Jesus worked an amazing miracle in her life. Her legs were a little bit uneven lengths, and this was causing pain in one of her feet. We prayed in the name of Jesus and her leg grew out so that her legs are even now! Praise God!

Last night Jessica and Lily met up with me, Meghan, and Grace, and we read through John 4. It was so powerful and Lily and Jessica had great insight into the Word. God was really highlighting the distinction between spiritual water and spiritual food in this passage. We must drink the living water, which is being filled with the Spirit (John 7:37-39), but we must also eat the food, which is doing God’s work. Our lives should be a balance between these two things.

We went back to their apartment, and got to drink some living water as we prayed together. Then we got to eat some good food from God when Lily decided to get baptized! She was buried with Jesus and raised up with him! Hallelujah!

Pray for this sister as she moves to College Station this week… Lily, wherever you go, Jesus goes with you!

We live in a church culture that underestimates the value and power of baptism. Every single example you will find in the book of Acts, as soon as someone put their faith in Jesus, they were baptized. Now we have to go through this long process of filling out a “baptism application” form and wait for a date to be baptized by the pastor in a church. Well the only thing on my baptism application form is I have decided to follow Jesus, check! And the authority to baptize? Who has it? Who gives it? This is what Jesus said:

Jesus came and told his disciples, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20

If only the clergy can baptize, then only the clergy can fulfill the Great Commission. If that is the case, we have a serious lack in the number of workers and we all need to get ordained!

This week, some of us from the All Nations and SCPx family helped out at InterCP’s Missions Leadership Training. These young Korean American students are giving up a year of their lives to go live in the Middle East and to share about the straight path to the Kingdom of God through Isa al Masih (Jesus the Messiah). These close friends of mine challenge me every time I am around them because they are so all-or-nothing for Jesus, ready to take up their cross and follow him, and filled with the Father’s deep heart of compassion for the nations. You want to see some mighty prayer take place? Give an InterCP person a map. Praise God for the great work of mobilization that he is doing through this group!

As we shared last week about church planting strategies and the multiplying dna within the seed of the Kingdom of God, we realized that these students had never been released to baptize new believers! Not only that, but many of them had never been baptized themselves. Erik had them go outside immediately to be baptized, and as they dedicated themselves in obedience to God, heaven opened over us!

One of my favorite quotes: “As soon as the works of the Scriptures are taken out of the hands of the common people and put into the hands of trained professionals, a movement ceases to move forward.” – Erik Fish at the Las Vegas Baptisms

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

<!--StartFragment-->

A story of Grace!  Part 1

I am a fisherman.   I am a fisherman.  I am a fisher of men!   One of my favorite verses in the Bible comes from when Jesus calls some of his disciples along the shoreline in Matthew 4:19 and says: "Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."
 

Have you ever caught a big fish before? If you have, in my humble opinion, you have just experienced an act of God’s grace!  As an experienced fisherman, I enjoy the challenges of putting the best presentation of bait before my prey, but all the while, I genuinely recognize that I am at the mercy of God and His elements during every fishing adventure.   I’ve fished in the midst of nasty storms  with pelting rain and sand as well as in sunny, warm, and serene ocean tides.  I’ve caught fish in both conditions and am genuinely aware that though I do my best, God is Lord over the beasts of the air and the fish of the sea.  

As you might have just figured out, I am pretty passionate about fishing!  In fact, during a passionate fishing frenzy over 10 years ago, me and my brother SP went on an adventure after Friday night fellowship at RCCC  ( youth group for me, YAF for SP) around midnight but we could not find a bait shop that was open in the wee hours of the morning.  We got duped by one bait shop that advertised in the Fisherman magazine that they were open 24 hours over the weekend.  We ended up sleeping in my Honda Civic overnight waiting for another bait shop to open at 5am in order to fish!  In the morning, we read Psalm 8 and claimed a promise of God’s blessing over us as we went out to conquer the Atlantic ocean from the surf of New Jersey.  I honestly don’t think we caught anything that day, but SP is still my brother from another mother even though he hails from a state 3,000 miles away from NJ!

Matthew 22:37-39 (New International Version)

³⁷Jesus replied:  "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind."^{[a] 38}This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹And the second is like it: "Love your neighbor as yourself."

I suppose there are two major things that I enjoy about fishing that I believe relates to this passage.

First, the encounters with God and His presence through  the sound of  crashing waves and sprays of sea salt mist.   It is a place where my soul readily connects with God.   Deep soul searching conversations with God seem easiest on the beach for me.  Pouring out emotions, feelings, perceptions, to the One who has said that the descendants of Abraham would be like the sand on the shores of the sea!   During some of my early morning fishing adventures, seeing the sun rise above the horizon is an event that has brought joy and refreshment to my soul.  A sunrise reminds me that God’s mercies are new every morning!  During my  night time fishing adventures, seeing the moon and stars in the sky reminds me how small I am, yet how awesome and loving God is!  Honestly, I believe that we all need to find out ways in which we connect deeply with our Creator.  Just like many people search for strong signals for free wireless connections or cell phone reception, we need to seek out places where our souls readily connect with God.   We need to make space in our lives to love God with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength.     How do you connect with God most readily?

Second, I enjoy the kind of love and fellowship that I can share with those with whom I fish.  There is something about fishing that forms our character.  A bond of friendship that is strengthened.   On a recent fishing trip while fishing on a beach in Belmar, NJ, I received some powerful encouragement.  I had arrived on the beach with two of my friends, Yuri and Ken at around 7:00pm.  We spent over 3 hours in conversation with God and one another.   Often, my conversations with people at the beach while fishing are life transforming.    The wind, waves, and sand keep good secrets.

But it is not just about the fishing.  It is also about the journey of life.  On a recent drive back, I experienced a powerful prayer time in the car ride back home with my house mate Ken! In a way, fishing enables me to love my neighbor as myself especially when I catch a big one and can share the goodness of God with my friends and family!

Back to the story!  Well, we were fishing almost 3 hours and the only thing we had caught were two ugly skate fish which kinda look like small sting rays.  Ken and Yuri had the blessing of catching these nasty fish whose wings are sometimes amputated and sold in Chinese food markets for $2.00 a pound!

So in frustration, as the shameful member of the no fish caught club, I took a whole fish, called a bunker and chopped it into three pieces!  I hurled two pieces into the surf as "chum" and then took a hook and placed it thru the mouth and upper lip of the fish going thru its nose.  I cast it into the sea with little faith, much unbelief, and a hint of cynicism.  I then went over to tell my friend Ken, that we should begin to pack it up in a few minutes.  He told me he had one last piece of clam bait and that he wanted to use before we left.  I proceeded to walk over to my rod and then bam!  The rod doubled over and line started screaming off the reel.  I walked  to the left and moved closer to the surf to try and control the fish and prevent it from taking off into some wooden pilings to the right of me.  I could tell it was a big fish by the amount of power and stress it was putting on my rod and reel.  I knew that fish this size know how to throw hooks out of their mouths and swim toward sharp barnacle infested pilings that can cut through almost any fishing line.  Line continued to scream off the reel but I knew the fish would be getting tired soon if I could just keep the line pressure on the fish.   After a more few minutes of fighting the fish, I was able to take in line on the reel and the fish was getting closer and closer to the shore line. I gave the pole to my friend Ken so that he could keep the line tight.  The fish was thrown onto the angled surf with a wave and I then ran over and grabbed the 40 pound test flourocarbon leader line that held the chemically sharpened hook in the fish’s mouth.   I was able to drag the fish up the incline onto the level portion of the beach.

Then Ken’s alarm went off at 10:02pm as I reached into the fish’s mouth to remove the hook embedded in the side of fish’s mouth. At that moment of grace, a sense of great joy filled my spirit as I was reminded of God’s goodness and provision in my life.  The 37 inch wild Striped Bass that I landed helped to feed some of my friends lunch and dinner a few times over!!!  Everyday at 10:02am and 10:02pm, for the last three years, I pray with likeminded kingdom workers to the Lord, for Him to send out workers into the harvest because the harvest is ripe and the laborers are few.  I was acutely reminded of God’s faithfulness and prayed to the Lord of the Harvest to send  out workers!!

<!--EndFragment-->

I have been meaning to post this for a long time, because I feel like it is so important, but life has been wonderfully unpredictable!

The body of Christ is made up of many beautiful and different parts, but only some seem to get noticed. This is sad!  Within the body, every joint supplies!

"...And the parts we regard as less honorable are those we clothe with the greatest care. So we carefully protect those parts that should not be seen, while the more honorable parts do not require this special care. So God has put the body together such that extra honor and care are given to those parts that have less dignity. This makes for harmony among the members, so that all the members care for each other. If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad..." (I Corinthians 12:22-26).

Let's honor one another and encourage one another with the unique gifts God has given us! I want to hear everyone's stories! I want to rejoice with you in everything that God is doing, whether it is a heart change, a miracle, prophecy, or an answered prayer.  It is about time that the "small" stories are told! Jesus is victorious! 

Don't be intimidated by the crazy miracles, they are great, but they are only part of the picture. Jesus is to be celebrated in EVERYTHING! This includes when you step out and pray for someone and they are not healed! Stepping out in faith is not always easy or natural, but Jesus is so pleased, even when nothing happens instantaneously.

Jesus adores you and He is working in your heart and through your life! There are no comparisons! You were made uniquely and fit perfectly into the body of Christ! You don't have to try, you already fit. What is God doing? What is He speaking? I want to hear it!

Let's live life together and encourage one another to step out into this Kingdom of AMAZINGNESS! :D

I have some testimonies to share:  Two weekends ago I traveled to Dearborne, MI, where a good friend of mine from college and her husband are serving as missionaries amongst the Muslim populations in the US.  Dearborne is practically all Arab, Arabs from everywhere- Iraqui refugees, Pakistan, Afghanistan, ect.  They have been there a year trying to build relationships with people and share Jesus stories with them, but frustrated at the same time for not seeing the fruit they had been longing to see.  How long does it take and why is there still such a language barrier?  It was so good to be there to encourage them, pray and worship with them and even visit and share with some of their Arab friends.  My drive home, however, was about 5 hours.  I arrive home knowing that something just isn’t right with my Ford Windstar that God blessed me with a few months ago.  I look under to find that my rear axle is broke in half but still attached!  I couldn’t even drive it to the grocery store without getting it fixed and God just had me drive 5 hours going 70mph on i80 with no problems until I got home and  pulled into the driveway.  Can you imagine both my rear wheels buckling in underneath me at that speed?  I was rejoicing in the providence and protection of the Lord and so excited to have Him as my God. 

So I borrowed my wonderful and gracious aunt’s Jeep Cherokee and met  Monday morning with a friend of mine from high school sharing the testimony about my axle, but also the numerous stories of God’s protection and his deliverance with vehicle accidents in situations when I was in  Malawi on missions when they could have been deadly.  Psalm 91:4 “He will shield you with his wing; He will shelter you with his feathers; His faithful promises are your armor and protection.”  It’s a little funny with the timing that after having that sweet conversation and driving to my home in New Wilmington that I’m in a car accident where another vehicle going 45mph hits into my driver’s side ruining both our vehicles.  He ruined our cars, but he never hit me.  He hit low enough and just behind the driver’s seat that I never felt the impact, only the movement of the car.  It was as if by providence God placed me in the sturdiest vehicle I could be traveling in and an unseen hand directing its place of impact on the vehicle protecting me the entire time.  No bruises, no aching, no whiplash, nothing, though my driveshaft was severed.  And then I get an email from my friend Laston all the way in Malawi in Africa, saying that on Monday he was worried for me all day.  He somehow knew I was driving and God had put it on his heart to pray for me all that day.  He runs to the internet cafe in the morning to send me a message and make sure I was alright without me telling him of that day's events.  The Lord Himself covered me with prayer.   And so I continually sit in awe of the faithfulness of my God.  The Jesus who spared me yesterday is the Jesus who continually spares me today and I would drive anywhere with him.  I wouldn’t trust my life with another.

Awesome site.  tools are well integrated.  TinyMCE was implemented in a very seamless manner.  Good stuff.

Keep up the good work!

As some of us in our student church community were reading scripture together this Friday, I was convicted by this scripture:  "You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house." (Acts 20:20)  I started thinking about what it meant to go house to house and preach and encourage other house churches.  The next day I got my chance.

A friend of mine from Huntsville text me on Saturday.  I felt the Lord telling me to go see her, so Sunday afternoon I left Austin for Huntsville.  When I arrived, I was suprised to find myself at the house church she is a part of.  The house church met in the home of a SHSU student.  I was so excited to be at a completely student-led simple church gathering in Huntsville, thinking about my simple church that was meeting back in Austin!  After eating together, we began to read the word.  They had been reading through Acts.  "Perfect!", I thought.  I was beginning to realize why I had just driven 3 hours to Huntsville.  I sensed that the Lord wanted to move powerfully in that place.  I began to hear the hunger of these students and young people for the things of Acts to come alive.  I shared a few testimonies of what God was doing in Austin at UT.  They expressed a feeling that they were missing something and they were not content with just reading about the things of the church in Acts. We talked about the baptism of the Holy Spirit that is discussed all throughout Acts.   But the enemy was trying to breed skepticism and doubt.  There was much hesitation.  Suddenly, my friend began to confess sin that she had been in bondage in her entire life.  I told her about her identity as a daughter of God.  Then I told her about her authority over those lies.  I prayed over her for deliverance from these strongholds, then she too renounced these lies and for the first time believed and proclaimed the truth that she was indeed set free!  Within minutes, everyone was huddled together on their knees with their hands out to receive from God.  I began to pray for the Spirit to fill each of them.  As I prayed, the overwhelming spirit of doubt in the room was overcome by the power of God and faith.  (Later, one guy told me he was cussing me out in his head and so skeptical... then the Spirit showed me that he had the gift of healing, and as soon as I touched his hands and began to pray, he said he felt heat all over the back of his head and neck and his hands began to tingle and get hot... immediately his thoughts went from "what the @#$% is this?"  to "God, how can I please you?  God, how can I please you?  God, how can I please you?").  The Lord gave me words for each of them and I prophesied over them all... God was confirming what had just happened by speaking straight into their lives.  They were shocked  and laughing at how everything God spoke was so right on.  The guy began to pray for healing (he had never prayed for healing before.. I taught him as we went... but it was as if he had done this 100 times).  He prayed over my cold and one the girls' jaw, and my friend (who God spoke had the gift of prophecy) was getting words of wisdom from the Lord about how to pray specifically. (Btw, I woke the next morning with no sore throat, which he prayed for.) This young man kept saying how overwhelming the presence of God was in the room.  One of the girls told him she couldn't stop thinking about his father who was sick.  He knew he was supposed to drive home right then and pray over his sick father.  We all prayed over him and sent him and the girl who got the word out to go to his home.  Unbelievable!  Over the course of 3 or 4 hours, this guy went from almost a complete lack of faith to 100% belief in the power of God.  We stayed late.  I sent them greetings from our simple church in Austin and left with my friend around midnight.

A few weeks ago our brother Carl came from Arizona State University.  He encouraged our community and brought greetings from his elders there.  We got to pray over him and send him back out.  I sense that God is wanting to do this more and more!  Student church planters traveling and encouraging house churches in other towns and universities and seeing the Holy Spirit fall on them.  The army of God is being empowered!  And God is using students!

God is on the move! Each day He is making the book of Acts more and more alive and we are seeing incredible things happening on the daily; essentially, we are seeing what the bible displays as normal Christianity being lived out.  There is an entire semester worth of testimonies, testimonies of salvations, baptisms, power encounters, signs and wonders, etc.  But, I would like to share what God has done this past weekend because I feel like it encompasses much of what the Lord is doing and is going to continue to do day to day.

Friday was the last day of classes at UT.  During the week leading up to Friday, the Lord was speaking to me about preaching on campus.  The conviction was heavy.  Everytime I was on campus I would feel this deep urging in my gut to stand up on something and proclaim the Gospel and the love of God to our lost campus.  I could feel the annointing to preach, but Satan had a hold on me and was keeping me in fear.  I wrestled with the Lord all week.  Finally, Wednesday night at our nightly prayer meeting, God led my friend Grace to the story of Jericho... and we read how they unashamedly blew horns and obeyed.  The Lord convicted me and my friend Lauren as we remembered a prophecy we had recieved from a very powerful, well-known prophet we had stayed with in India in January.  The word from the Lord was specific... we were to blow a shofar (a horn) on our campus two times to the north, two times to the east, two times to the south, and two times to the west.  And where we blow the horn we were to preach the Gospel to the people and God would move.  So after a very powerful time of prayer that night, breaking off all fear, we knew what we were to do.  We asked God for a shofar and decided we would preach on campus on the last day of class (It took us a whole semester to obey this one.  Haha, praise Him for His mercy!) 

Friday morning I woke up with no voice.  I knew the enemy was trying to attack, so I prayed against it and within an hour my voice was back.  Later, God provided the shofar.  So we gathered to pray at the steps of the UT tower, taking authority over the enemy's schemes and praying for the Spirit to fall.  Then at 11:50 as students were filing out of their classes and walking across the main mall in front of the tower, we blew the shofar.  I stood on the steps and blew it loudly twice in all directions (if you ever get your hands on one of these, it's a blast!).  With the last blow, Lauren began to preach.  The Spirit gave her words to speak, and she began to proclaim the love of God... the love that is never proclaimed from the mouths of the "turn or burn" street-preachers on our campus.  A few people stopped to listen, most however kept walking with their ipod in their ears, or made a face and continued on, or even snapped a pic with their iphone as they mocked.  Then I began to preach trusting the Lord to give me words.  I too proclaimed the powerful love of Jesus and shared the testimony of my brother who had been transformed by encountering Jesus.  One guy stopped giving me several loud and genuine "Amen's!".  In the meantime, many convos were going on between our friends and students walking by.  My friend Caryn talked to one girl.  The girl told Caryn how she had heard me preaching and got angry and tried to make a quick get-away.  But she said when she heard me say something about the love of God, she turned around and came back to listen.  This girl, who was a believer, moved and convicted said, "why would be ashamed of this message?" An hour later, Bear preached powerfully, sharing his testimony and proclaiming the Kingdom of heaven is near!  My body shivered as he preached with power.  Many mocked and laughed.  But one student froze dead in his tracks and listened until Bear was done.  Afterwards, he and Bear talked for hours.  This student was hungry for more of God!  He and Bear are going to continue meeting together.

After we preached off and on for several hours, we could feel the atmosphere on the campus had changed!  We went to grab lunch in the Union where many students were gathered to eat.  There, Lauren and Courtney talked with a UT football player with a broken foot.  They told him about the power of Jesus and he agreed to let them lay hands on his boot and pray for healing.  They prayed and he said he felt heat in his foot.  With many students looking on, the football player removed his boot and walked around to test it out.  He said the pain was gone and he could now put pressure on parts of his foot he couldn't before.  Jesus healed him and many witnessed this!

Not too long after, Caryn and I stopped to pray for a woman with a brace on her knee.  She had problems with her meniscus in both knees.  We prayer for knees.  She said she also felt heat.  She began to bend her knees and move around.  "They feel a lot better!"  she said.  We prayed one more time for completion and she said they felt really good.  We told her that Jesus loves her and she was extremely touched by this encounter with God.

Later that day, a friend of ours who was around for the preaching said she wanted more of God.  She had been desiring to see God's power in her own life.  So we prayed for the Spirit to fill her, and she was empowered and set free!

The fear of man had me captive for a week, but finally God showed me what loving my peers really looked like.  This Friday the Gospel was preached/declared (accompanied by much outcasting and mocking).  Then the atmosphere changed and Jesus confirmed that is indeed alive through healing.  God is using students take back the land for the Kingdom.  The book of Acts is happening... we just have to step out in obedience and in faith and let God do His thing.

This year we had our first "End of the Year Baptisms".  I like to joke with our students that "Although it's our first official baptismal service at ahop, hopefully it will be the last!"   At least the last one where I do the baptizing.  Honestly, I had never baptized anyone before so this was a first for me.  I really enjoyed it, but more than that I desired for our students to learn that they could do it too and to not back down when the opportunity comes.  And it will come!  So, in keeping with good simple church practice I did the baptisms more in an "instructional" way than in an "official", "Come watch the Pastor Baptize", sort of way.  I gave a short message on baptism and why we do it and then taught them how to do it step-by-step.  

 "See One. Do One. Teach One."  is an old adage doctors use when training and raising up future doctors.  (Thanks for the adage Sam!)