Jack was special. It was Jack’s job to watch over and care for the most magnificent plant in the entire garden. His plant was an enormous flower that could be seen from miles away. Most people say that the flower didn’t even exist until Jack was born- like it was made for him. The flower was made up of a rainbow of bold and brilliant colors. It had the most beautiful aroma anyone had ever smelled. The flower’s roots were so deep that it drank from an abundant supply of water from an underground stream-Jack didn’t even have to water it. It was placed in the garden in such a position that it received the perfect amount of sunlight and the perfect amount of shade, and even stayed in full bloom all year long. The flower was so magnificent that it even glowed in the dark on nights when the moon was out in its splendor.

Everyone in the garden would have done just about anything to tend to this flower. Even though they loved their plants, they would be lying if they said they never secretly dreamed about just watching Jack’s flower for hours. All Jack needed in life to be abundantly happy was to just sit and be with the flower and enjoy its multifaceted beauty. And all the flower needed from Jack was for him to take pleasure in being with her.

The flower burst forth offspring in the fertile ground around Jack’s corner of the garden. The amount of beauty and perfection that had been planted all around him was unfathomable. Jack’s life was basically perfect. He had been given a family- the most beautiful family he could have ever imagined. Life should have been good- very good.

But Jack had something in his heart that told him that he deserved better; that he needed more than just the most beautiful flower on earth and her offspring. He loved the flower and had no desire to tend to any other plants, but he began to spend less and time with his flower family in pursuit of something more fulfilling than what he had been given.

He poured his energy into tending fertile soil that had not yet been seeded. He worked vigorously rerouting streams and rivers to portions of the garden that had no need for irrigation. He began to write books about how to tend a flower. He scheduled as many meetings as he could with other gardeners to tell them about how good he was at tending flowers and how hard of a worker he was. He even ran for the position of head gardener and won.

Yes! Jack was busy! Jack was feeling quite good about himself. After all, he had won the respect of everyone in the garden- all because of his hard work- or so he thought. You see, people looked up to Jack, not because he was a hard worker or a phenomenal gardner, but because he had the most beautiful flower in the garden. And the more and more busy Jack become, the more and more recognition he gained, and the more and more his ego grew; the more and more his flower began to wither and die along with all of her offspring.

Jack saw the poor condition of his flower and her offspring. Day after day he looked at it as he left his portion of the garden for his busy work. But Jack didn’t have time to tend to them! He was a busy man and people needed him! His flower and her offspring would be fine- after all, they had Jack as their gardner.

One day, a trusted friend of Jack was walking by his portion of the garden when he noticed that Jack’s flower wasn’t so beautiful anymore. She was nearly withered to the point of death. Her offspring were suffering as well; their once vibrant petals littering the now dry soil at the base of their stems. Jack’s friend ran to warn him, but Jack didn’t care- he shrugged it off and blamed their condition on his flower’s unstable emotions.

Jack’s friend began to tell others about his flower, and Jack began to lose all the respect that he once had. Jack started to realize that his notoriety was based, not on his hard work, but on his beautiful flower. When Jack realized that, and how he had horribly neglected them, he ran back to his portion of the garden to take pleasure in his beautiful flower and her offspring in order to rejuvenate their health, restore their symbiotic relationship, and bring back his respect amongst the other gardeners.

But when Jack arrived, it was too late. His beautiful magical flower lay limp on the ground, and her offspring all bowed down dead on the ground facing towards their mother. Jack wept aloud and wished that he only would have seen how perfect his life was! If only he has paid attention to the one thing that was supposed to be the object of his affection. If only he wouldn’t have tried to pursue so many other things that he now finds meaningless…if only.

And even though I’m far from being a great teacher, there are some people who just aren’t good speakers at all. This is possibly because they have no talent or spiritual gift for it, and should just not be doing it; or they have great talent, gifts, and potential for speaking but are still too immature, inexperienced, unconfident, and/or unknowledgable to even begin reaching their potential.

For those with a passion, talent, and gifting for speaking/teaching yet struggle in this area, I would like to give some advice. I will spend the next week or so pointing out some areas that all teachers/preachers of the Word of God can work on- especially me.

“That’s the people I have been looking for sooooo long time, so I think I’m lucky to join your church!”

“I think I need learn about God from you, your church, in the future i will always take part in the activities of your church! Thanks for choosing me to join!”

“I could say that I always think about the question : Who i am? Why I live in the world, So when you were talking about it, suddenly it seems like the Sunlight, warm wind, blows in my window heart, No one answered me before”

“…he will give the gift to you, that’s Grace!”

If only we could all be as excited about Jesus as we were in the first days of our relationship with him!

I LOVE TAX TIME! A time of year where you get large sums of money back that you were forced to pay to the government all year. A time where you can be extra thankful for the number  of children you have and the amount of mortgage interest and property taxes that you paid. All kidding aside, I thank GOd for every good and perfect gift he bestows upon us and for allowing us to get by throughout the year. Tax returns are just an added blessing. I wonder how much we would get back if we had 14 kids? Hhhmmmmm????

I, however, heard God’s call to take this position and moved on it. I didn’t actually think that I would lose some ground when it came to this gift though. Boy was I wrong.

I don’t doubt that God brought me here and has me here for a reason and a season, but I am wondering why He is allowing my favorite thing to do in ministry- speaking- to become much more difficult for me.

I have only spoke 2 times on Sundays here and once in chapel. During this time I have also spoke 2 times back home at Bible Center.

But during this time of infrequent speaking, it has become very difficult for me to actually speak/ teach/ preach: my motivation to prepare a message has decreased, my abillity to focus while preparing a message has decreased, my time to study in order to prepare messages has radically decreased, and even my confidence of getting up in front of large groups of people has decreased- WEIRD!

Speaking is still my passion. I guess God is testing me and teaching me some things. I have learned that preaching is not like riding a bike- when you stop doing it for a while, you can’t just hop back behind the pulpit and start riding again. I guess you can forget. Preaching takes practice….

Ok, so this one’s been a long time coming. I am just totally sick of hearing about Todd Bentley and the Lakeland Revival. I am also sick of people falling for it hook, line, and sinker- and for that, I will continue- to expose the Truth so that people would ask the Lord for discernment and begin to look to the Word of God before diving in head first into the looney bin.

My disclaimers are as they were before:

1.] I do believe in the precense of the supernatural gifts of the Spirit in the world today and that they can be used however the Lord wills. and…

2.] I do not believe that Todd Bentley means for the people he “ministers to” to be led astray. I believe Mr. Bentley has good intentions, but is being decieved by the devil in order to lead people away from Christ. His own statements have made that very clear- more on that another time.

My first post on this issue pertained to the whole locallity issue- that you have to go “there” (Florida) to get “some” (drunk off the Holy ghost). Today’s post will be discussing the problem of “evangelists” and their followers trying to Control God in their ministries.

God is soveriegn and He acts how he pleases to bring Himself glory- we cannot lead God around on a leash. We cannot put God in a box. And we cannot saddle up the Holy Spirit and direct Him wherever we want.

Sadly, many people are heading down to Lakeland becasuse they expect God to do a specific thing for them. They want to be slain in the Spirit, they want to speak in tongues, they want some holy laughter, they want to be drunk in the Spirit , they want to be healed, etc…

What about wanting to worship God simply for who He is? What about bringing glory to God and expecting nothing out of it? What about realizing that we are totally lost people incapable of restoring our relationship with God without Christ? What about telling the lost about Jesus and doing whatever possible to invite them into His Kingdom?

Sadly, this Lakeland Revival tends to be simply a Holy Huddle- a feeding frenzy of Christians out to “Get Some” of God instead of giving something back to Him.

What if God doesn’t give them what they selfishly expecte? Will they still follow Him or will they go to the next ‘thing’ that can make them feel good?

Sadly, many Christians base their Christianity on a feeling or an experience instead of on the person of Jesus Christ. You see, my relationship with Jesus is not based off of a time when I spoke in tongues. My relationship with Jesus is not based off of a time when he made me fall backwards into a ‘catchers’ arms. My relationship with Jesus is not based off of a time when shivers went up my back or when times were good in my life.

My relationship with Jesus is based on the biggest miracle of all time- that God loved me, despite my sin, so much that He would send His Son Jesus to live a life I could not live, die a death I deserve to die, raise from the grave three days later, ascend into heaven where He sits at the right hand of God the Father, who imparted to me Christ’s righteousness as a sovereign gift of grace that I recieved through faith, as my High Priest, Savior, and Lord and through His Holy Spirit is making me more and more like Him as I approach the day that I see Him face to face.

That’s it- Christ alone and Him crucified. Nothing more. Nothing less. Do I expect that God will bless me in ways I can’t imagine? Yes. Do I rejoice when times are good? Yes! Do I rejoice when God reveals to me His power through a supernatural act of the Holy Spirit? Yes! Do I rest my relationship in Him on those things? No!

Jesus told the story of a wise man who built his house upon a rock. My faith is built on the Rock of my salvation- Jesus Christ. So when the wind comes, the rain falls, and the earth quakes, I will stand firm in Christ.

Jesus also told of the story of the foolish man who built his house upon the sand. And when the forces of nature came up against it, it crumbled. Sadly, the faith of many will crumble when hard times come because their foundation has been a state of euphoria instead of Christ.

So, unlike those who rush to Utopia in Lakeland, I do not put expectations on God of what he should do in my life. I leave it to Him. I heard someone say once that God is the most untameable Creature on earth and they are so right!

The Newsboys said it best with their song Who:

“And there’s no use explaining what can’t be contained

[Chours 1:]
I’m not following a God I can lead around
I Can’t tame this deity
That’s why Jesus is the final answer
to Who I want my God to be!
He’s Who [I want my God to be...]”

Coming up next: Supernatural Doesn’t Mean Godly

This past week my wife and I were in the process of giving up on a dream that we were beginning to doubt God’s approval of. Right at the verge of giving up and being ok with the dream not being God’s will- we got a phone call. We got a call at 11:00 PM. The call was an answer to our prayers and God clarifying His will for our lives. It was wonderful and in His perfect time. It was a ministry and a financial breakthrough that we could have never dreamed of on our own. God ALWAYS comes through for His children!

Three days later God came through in a big way again. Ever since Susan quit working to raise both of our children, we have been living off of my income, tax returns, and tax stimulus checks. The extra money from the tax returns and stimulus checks is now depleted and it has been a struggle to get by.

This last week we had $20 to our name with 11 days to go until pay day and we were out of….toilet paper. We knew God would come through and Susan prayed on Saturday morning that God would take her financial worries away from her mind. At 8:30 PM, some friends showed up at our day with a large amount of cash that God had placed in their hearts to give to us. Praise God for His blessings and our friends for their obedience.

My God will supply all of my needs according to His riches and glory!