The Daily Walk

“The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.”
PSALM 34:18,19

We must learn sooner rather than later that discipleship is a process of tearing down in order to build up. We cannot expect to have a single mountaintop experience with the Lord and then assume from henceforth the work of the Cross is completed in us. When we are standing with the Lord in the New Jerusalem we may lay down the Cross. Until then, we dare not entertain the thought that we have already been made perfect. We must deny ourselves and take up the Cross daily.
Source: Embrace the Cross by Chip Brogden

Giving in Secret

“When you do a charitable deed, do not let
your left hand know what your right hand is doing."
MATTHEW 6:3

Jesus did not advocate anonymous charity in order to make us paranoid or fearful of being caught doing a good deed. He did it to liberate us, to enlarge us, to help us experience the pure joy of a no-strings-attached gift, to ensure we would not become proud, and very importantly, to prevent others from rewarding, manipulating, regulating, or expecting us to give to them on a continual basis apart from His direction.

He understood how easily people, even with the best of intentions, make value judgments of others based on material possessions. He obviously didn’t want that to be the case among His people.

Source: The Church in the Wilderness by Chip Brogden

Reduced to Christ

“He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God.”
2 CORINTHIANS 1:21

If we have Him then we have everything that is in Him already. If only we can get less of everything else, there will be more of Him revealed! With less of me there will be more of Him.

Jesus said that “only One Thing is needed,” but like Martha, we have become troubled over “many things” (Luke 10:40-42). When those many things are discarded, and we are decreased, then we are free to focus our attention on the One Thing that really matters, and Christ is increased in us. This is why we say that spiritual growth is not more knowledge or increase of years; it is simply more of Him and less of me. He increases as I am decreased. This is what it means to be a disciple. This is how Christ becomes preeminent over us individually. It does not happen all at once, but over the process of many temptations, tests, trials, and a fair amount of suffering. I call it being reduced to Christ.

Source: Embrace the Cross by Chip Brogden

At His Feet

“She had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word.”
LUKE 10:39

There are two elements here: she sat at His feet, and she heard His Word. You must sit at His feet and hear Him for yourself. Entering into the Lord’s thought, becoming acquainted with His Ways as well as His Word, takes the sort of love-devotion Mary demonstrates.

The Greek here is continuous action: she “kept on listening.” Martha listened too, but when she arose to prepare dinner, Mary remained. As we progress we will see that Mary has discovered Spirit and Truth, and from henceforth she is always at the feet of the Lord in one way or the other.

Source: Lord of All by Chip Brogden

Spiritual Growth Explained

"By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren."
1 JOHN 3:16

This increase of Christ and decrease of Self does not begin on a universal level, but goes to work individually, quietly, in the innermost being of every true disciple. This process of increasing Christ and decreasing Self began long before you even gave your heart to the Lord. It made the actual giving of your heart to Him possible. But He must continue to increase, and so this process of increase will continue beyond that initial coming to the Lord and will be the means through which you are to grow spiritually.

In like manner, you must continue to decrease, and so that process of decrease will continue beyond that initial coming to the Lord and will also be the means through which you are to grow spiritually. You need both the increase and the decrease. They both work together, and one is not possible without the other.

Source: Embrace the Cross by Chip Brogden

Christ At the Center

“‘You have put all things in subjection under His feet.’ For in that He put all in subjection under Him, He left nothing that is not put under Him.”
HEBREWS 2:8

This possession and subjection of all things to Christ is not a passive, disinterested, distant, absentee ownership, like a clock that was once wound and now ticks all by itself long after the watchmaker has left it. Make no mistake: at the core of this spiritual and physical universe is a living, powerful, proactive Personality at work to bring fallen creation back to its original state, back into line with God’s Purpose, Heart, Mind, Desire, and Plan, which is CHRIST FILLING ALL THINGS, CHRIST UPHOLDING ALL THINGS, CHRIST AT THE CENTER OF ALL THINGS!

Come quickly Lord Jesus! May Your Kingdom be manifest!

Source: Lord of All by Chip Brogden

Exhausting Your Strength

“In my prosperity I said, ‘I shall never be moved.’”
PSALM 30:6

It should be obvious that God will not give us grace while we are still proud. Why? Because He will allow no flesh to glory in His presence. When we cease doing what we cannot do then He begins to do what we cannot. The problem is that we still think we can do so many things. We must learn sooner, rather than later, that “apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Nothing!

But it is human nature to try and do it ourselves. This human nature is the flesh. It prevents us from entering into Grace. God cannot save someone who is still trying to save themselves. Similarly, God cannot do what we are still trying to do. He will wait – weeks, months, or years – until we have exhausted our strength. When our strength is completely gone and we finally go to Him in weakness, He becomes our Strength and we find Grace is there to do the impossible. Then we know it was not us, but the Lord. All praise goes to Him, and we retain nothing for ourselves.

Source: Embrace the Cross by Chip Brogden

Being With Jesus

“When they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.”
ACTS 4:13

When people are in your presence, what do they touch – a system of beliefs, a code of conduct, an ethical standard, or a Person? We may have an abundance of words and teachings, but all of them together are nothing but letters if they are not constantly pointing us to a Living Christ.

Source: Lord of All by Chip Brogden

Step Into the Awkward

InterVarsity Evangelist Beau Crosetto says following Jesus' command to be His witness requires us to get past social mores and work through the tension

Beau Crosetto

A few months ago after playing basketball with a group of guys, we stuck around after the game to shoot the breeze. Now, I don’t really know these guys at all. I just play with them at 6 a.m. at the local 24 Hour Fitness. But as the conversation kept moving forward, the topic of what we do started to come up.  I knew that when I told them what I did, things could get a little tense. So when I said that I was a Christian minister, I took it one step further. I actually interjected that I would love to talk with any of them if they ever have questions about God or Jesus.
Awkward silence. Crickets.
As I sat there in that nervous pause, something very usual happened. Most of the guys said, “Thanks but not that interested,” while a few said, “Oh, you’re a Christian? So am I!” But one guy approached me later and told me that he would like to talk sometime.
Like most of us, I always feel uncomfortable for a minute when it’s time to bring up Jesus. But also probably like you, I’ve definitely found that the awkwardness is always worth it. Who else is going to bring up Jesus at 6 a.m. on the basketball floor?
In evangelism, the awkwardness usually precedes breakthrough. For that one guy, my willingness to step into the awkward allowed a breakthrough toward a new conversation about Jesus.

Forward and Beyond the Tension

So how can we as church planters equip our church to move beyond the awkward and into the real spiritual conversations waiting to happen in the spaces we live and move? How can we begin to move people out of timidity into more bold evangelism?
First, we have to become more aware of why certain situations are awkward—and why we avoid them. If we’re going to talk to others about our faith, understanding specifically why things are awkward will be extremely helpful for further conversations about how to move beyond the tension and into breakthrough.
Social awkwardness results when universally accepted social rules are broken. The more rules that are broken, the more awkward encounters become. Teaching people to share their faith and move beyond the awkward requires us to repeatedly break three main social norms. And because people have to break these rules, most of them don’t get beyond surface conversations to share their faith and begin the discipleship process.
Below I’ve listed these three social norms to talk about with your launch team or in small groups.
Three social norms we have to break to share our faith:

1. Don’t make people feel uncomfortable. Our culture is becoming more and more conditioned to seek comfort and stay there. If something doesn’t feel good, why do it? These days, it’s not typical for us to “press through” situations that don’t feel good. It has become accepted and even normal to avoid them, get rid of them and do something different.
2. Don’t press people about what is true or real. In our culture, especially as it becomes more experience-based, telling someone that only one way is right or challenging people on what is true or real just isn’t tolerated. We live in a relativistic culture, where people are increasingly embracing the mantra “What is good for you is good for you, and what is good for me is good for me.”
3. Don’t talk to strangers. In Western culture, starting deeper conversations with people we don’t know it is not really socially acceptable. Obviously, this differs depending on where you live. But for the most part, it is a social rule that when we are in public and we don’t know someone, we keep to ourselves. These days, total strangers generally do not strike up conversations of any sort, much less spiritual ones, on a plane, train, bus, etc.

So any kind of social encounter that presses us to break one of these rules will create awkward tension. When we break all three rules—talk to a stranger, make someone feel uncomfortable, and press someone on what is true or real—then we are on our way to a tense moment.
Wanting to be socially acceptable makes it difficult to be a witness. But the reality of being a follower of Jesus is that He asks us to be His witnesses, and this command means breaking one or more of those social rules.
The Great Commission and the mandate to evangelize the world violate our social mores. “Go everywhere” as opposed to knowing your place; “make disciples” vs. mind your own business and just keep the conversation pleasant; and “teach them to obey My commands” vs. religious and behavioral liberty.
As you plant your church, inspire and equip people to step into the awkward and begin the disciple-making process now. Remind them that the awkwardness is always worth it!
This post is based on the newly released book Beyond Awkward, by Beau Crosetto. Go here to learn about the opportunity to receive several evangelism resources Crosetto is offering.

True Confessions

“‘Who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter answered and said, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’”
MATTHEW 16:15,16

Jesus did not teach Peter what to say, He merely revealed Himself to Peter. He did not sit down with His disciples and say, “I am the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Now repeat that after Me several times, and I will test you on this in the morning.” He did not teach them a catechism or a rosary or a mantra or a confession, He merely revealed Himself to them as He in fact is. They made the confession in due course, having revelation.

The Testimony of Jesus always springs forth from the Revelation of Christ. If we do not have the Revelation then we cannot have the Testimony. That is to say, we cannot bear witness of what we have seen and heard if we have not, in fact, seen or heard anything. We try to get people to confess in order that they may ATTAIN to something, but true confession comes forth naturally after they have OBTAINED it.

Source: Lord of All by Chip Brogden

Looking back on the last seven years (2) 1700 people trained!

1700 people trained! Looking back on the last seven years (2) October 23, 2014   Seven years ago, LK10 consisted of Kent Smith and myself and a small group of interested people.  We were committed to the Vision Statement:  To fulfill the Great Commission by seeing a vibrant family of Jesus in easy access of every region and people group.  Beyond that, we didn’t have a lot except a commitment to listen to God and do what He directed.  What the Lord has led us to over these years is completely amazing (and unexpected) to me! The rhythms.  There were two outcomes or goals we had for the house churches we were planting.  First, that they would be deeply transformational.  That is, that lives would be changed, that we would all be increasingly “conformed to the image of Christ”.  Second, that viral multiplication would occur.  That is, that these house churches would multiply like a “benevolent virus” around the world.  (I always loved the title of Roland Allen’s book:  The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church.)  But, how to do this? At some point, Kent introduced us to the term “rhythms of attention“.  That is, that our main job is not to try and make something happen.  Rather, it is to become skilled at paying close attention.  Paying attention to our own hearts (mine and yours).  And, even more important, paying attention to God’s heart.  What is it that He is up to?  (Prevenience)  What is it that He is saying to us? (Listening)  How do we join him in what He is doing?  (Jesus models this in Jn. 5:19.)  We realized that everything else (church, mission, etc.) flowed from these two simple rhythms.  If these two spiritual practices could become the regular rhythms of our lives, deep transformation and viral multiplication would be the natural (spontaneous!) outcomes.  (This represented a radical paradigm shift from what most of us had been trained to do in church.)  Kent explains his thinking about the importance of “rhythms of attention” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0Qy_1vWpJw “Smaller still”.  Later, Kent felt he heard this from the Lord:  “Smaller still and wider yet.”  There was something smaller than a house church and there was something wider than an individual house church.  As we sought the Lord for what this meant, we found ourselves asking this question, “What is the smallest number of people you can have and still have church?”  The obvious answer was “two”. From this, we coined the term “church of two” or “CO2″.  We described it this way, “Two people, two rhythms of attention, as close to daily as possible.” Here again, this was something that was both transformational and viral.  We have learned that the CO2 is the “basic building block” of every larger expression of church” (whether house church or traditional church).  (The principle is explained in Eccles. 4:9-12.)    CO2s are the best way to start new house churches.  And, a house church with multiple CO2s is greatly strengthened. In order to teach these concepts we put together a training course.  Initially, it was twelve weeks.  Then, two courses of six weeks each.  It went by various names, the Apprenticeship, the Foundations Course.  At the end of 2012, Sean Hyatt, heard from the Lord that we should shorten the course, now called Church 101, to just four weeks and make it free and easily accessible (shareware) to everyone.  Sean tells the story here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7fyb1RsVrU&list=UUQAhCTc8YIsUEf8dBOL0ovw  My recent survey of Regional Coordinators indicated that at least 1700 people have now been trained through Church 101 (or the equivalent).  And, the course is in the process of being translated into French, Spanish and Russian.  Truly, Church 101 has gone viral!   “Wider yet.”  In addition to going smaller, the Lord was instructing us to go wider.  As we prayed the 10:2b Prayer(Lk 10:2), we began to see John Knoxers appear.  (John Knox, the Scottish church leader who prayed, “Give me Scotland or I die!”)  These were men and women who felt called to plant churches in a particular region or people group.  In the fall of 2013, we began using video calls (Google hangouts) to connect these people in “communities of practice”.  These were online “hangouts” for mutual support and equipping.  You can see what these “hangouts” are like in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndtXeZu5ueU&list=UUQAhCTc8YIsUEf8dBOL0ovw Current Regional and People Group Coordinators… Inside the United States:  Eastern US (Dennis Brown), Central US (Al and Mitzi Paradise), West Coast (John Parker), Bay Area (Mina Millen), Texas (Jordan Bunch), Central Texas (Jim and Cathy Mellon), Denver and Front Range (Sean Hyatt), ACU Grad School (Kent Smith) Outside the United States:  Australia (Maree Watson), Uruguay (Matt and Toni Daniels), Belgium (Scott Galbraith), France (Paul and Laura Harrigan), Russia (Dennis P), Kenya (Clinton and Pahtyana Moore).   The LK10 “Virus” is also present in Nigeria, India, Nepal and Argentina. People Groups:  Asian American Students (Truman Lo), People coming out of abusive churches (Sean Hyatt) When I think back to where we were seven years ago, I am stunned by what the Lord has done.  I am deeply grateful for the way He has led us one step at a time.  I’m also deeply grateful for the role that many of you have played in the development of LK10.  And, I’m so looking forward to what He will do in the next seven years! Warmly, John

Want to Join? We are able to do our work here because of the generous prayers and contributions of many. When you join us in donating, you join a whole community of folks who want to see a "vibrant family of Jesus" in easy access of every person on the planet.   All U.S.donations are tax deductible.     Donate to LK10 electronically: 1. (our link) 2. Fill out info. 3. Follow additional instructions to finalize your transaction. You can also mail in a gift or set up an automatic bank transfer.  (Give address or tell them to contact me?) 1. Make a check to LK10 2. Send it to: John White 1723 S. Poplar Way Denver, CO  80224   Sign up for Church 101 Course Have Stories? Do you have stories to share related to how you or someone else is putting LK10 values into practice? Contact John White @ john.lk10@gmail.com

Go to LK10 Website

Functional Adult Literacy Program

Appleseed Travel Journal - Functional Adult Literacy Program

In This Issue... Functional Adult Literacy Program More Recent Articles

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Brooks Sophie was a Muslim. She attended the mosque and read her Koran faithfully, even though her spiritual community treated her harshly and with cruelty. She also lived in abject poverty never even thinking or daring to hope that life could be any different. School fees had not been there for her to attend school as a child, so she had no education, no life skills for even the possibility of a better life. Young and looking for love in all the wrong places, Sophie became pregnant at a young age and now has a child “with a very large head,” who her mother and she must take care of constantly. Life for her was very, very difficult at best. Sophie That was until the day Irene came to her village. “Irene came to my home and she showed me love. Even when I was hungry, she gave me 2000 shillings so we could eat. She taught me about life issues. She is teaching me how to read and write. I can even write my name and all the names of the women in my class. She is teaching all of us savings among our group and table banking, and even how to manage our homes.” Sophie is one of many students we met whose lives are being changed. Last February monies from Women Walking for Women and Team Uganda were used to fund the Functional Adult Literacy Program (FAL) in Eastern Uganda. Several women were taught how to instruct villages and women living in poverty in the subjects of functional living (hygiene and life skills) and literacy. The target students are women who had been forced to drop out of school (if they ever went) due to finances in the homes they were raised in or pregnancy or because they were used to work and/or raise their siblings. Today there are 10 centers where teachers have committed (without any pay) to go out to villages or neighborhoods twice a week to meet with 20-30 students. The class cost nothing for the students. The ones who attend are faithful. They want a way out. Those who are not committed are replaced with others waiting in line who are willing. As you can imagine learning to read and write at age 18-45 is not easy. Zituna told me that Irene came to her home and told her that she would teach her how to read and write and that God would help her. When Irene gathered her first class it was under a tree. There they met for many months before a small structure could be built. After talking with some of the students, it was quickly apparent to have someone come into their lives to begin to speak love into their dry spirits has been life-changing. For someone to use their own small money (Irene sells charcoal just to get money for transport) to build real and lasting relationships is unbelievable to them. These women are experiencing the love of Jesus in real, practical ways. Many practice their newly found skill of reading by gathering in simple, small home churches where they find faith in the God who loves them and believes in them and is there to give them strength and courage to embrace a new way of living, letting go of so much that traditionally has kept them bound to merely surviving. There is joy on their faces and laughter in their hearts…it’s very obvious. Today they have hope. Far too long they have lived under the blanket of superstition, fear, and oppression for simply being a woman. Thank you, all…for enabling women in Uganda to go and be all they can and were created to be. The tree where students met for the first few months in this particular village. Four different families live in this one structure. The structure that was built for the women to meet in to keep from being disturbed and distracted by onlookers or held back by weather. Irene teaching her students. Students taking a break “to clear their minds” by playing “sheep, sheep, goat”…what we call “duck, duck, goose.” Students anxious and willing to learn. Children forever curious and present… And, one little boy who could not hold back and just had to touch the hand of the mzungu. Because one Ugandan woman reached out to another with love and compassion, chances are extremely good that she will see and make possible for this little one to go to school, be educated and come out of a life of poverty.

Focus, and Jesus #2

Hi all,

An awakening happened a few months ago when the same lady who has cut my hair each month for years, asked with a straight face after my latest shearing: "Would you like me to trim your eyebrows?"

 

Her question was like a thunder clap. I didn't know whether to be insulted or submit to the sudden realization my body is getting old. No one had ever asked to trim my eyebrows. Not even Barb. Trim a few ear and nose hairs maybe, ok, after all I am 16 years past 40.

 

How far I've come down the path of hair maturity! When Barb and I were dating she asked if I thought I'd have sideburns and more than 3 chest hairs by the time we were married! Not only have I sideburns, I have a forest on my chest and the 'leaves' are starting to turn with the season too - gray.

 

The worst thing was, I had no idea they needed trimmed!

 

And this is like the body of Christ, how???

Proof that we are eternal is that inside we feel the same as we did when we were teenagers. Our body changes around us but inside we feel the same, proving we don't need these bodies to live eternally, making the issue merely one of destination. When I look in the mirror I feel like I'm looking at the same 17 year old I've always been, but the reflection has changed these last many years. Eternally we live forever, but we can choose how mature we are when we enter the next life.

 

Babies are focused on self and easily distracted. If they are fussy we dangle shiny and noisy car keys just out of reach, and they focus on that for a few minutes. But that gets old and more than one parent has resisted better judgement and for lack of something else safe to give them, given them the whole key ring to keep them entertained, figuring they'll take care of the germs later. And when that gets old and nothing else works, sticking a Binky* in their mouth might do it. (*Brand name of what my generation called a pacifier)

 

I shared last week from Ephesians 4:14, a characteristic of spiritual babyhood is running here and there to the latest 'wind of teaching', making the comparison between babyhood and spiritual growth. Many Christians reach for the spiritual keys dangling before them for a season, and then they finally get that key ring and slobber all over it for a time, then they move on to something else to pacify them for a season.

 

Sadly, the Lord then becomes their servant, having to provide something else for them to become distracted with until they reach a point they desire maturity, then He can begin to help them grow. 

 

Babies can't help but grow into toddlers, who can't help but grow into children, who can't help but grow into teens, who can't help but grow into adults. Not so spiritually. We choose to grow, it isn't a process that takes over and we have to deal with the changes as they happen. We choose the changes. We choose to grow. We choose to make right decisions. We choose to be Christ like, or not.

 

If a person decides what Jesus is asking them to do is too difficult - forgive a person for instance, or refrain from spreading gossip, or stop defiling themselves with the world, and so forth - if all that is just too hard, then Jesus will do what He can to meet them where they are, but will be limited by what He can do in them.

 

Focus...

During a visitation years ago the Lord said He wanted to teach me how He teaches people. I was a young pastor and had been seeking the Father for wisdom. A pastor friend told me he didn't do any 'counseling' to members of his congregation. He said he would listen to them, show them the Word and what it said, and tell them to come back after they'd obeyed the Word. He said he rarely saw them again after that.

 

But another pastor spent hours and hours with people, confiding in me he was worn out because more often than not people merely wanted to vent or have a shoulder to cry on, or build their case on why they did what they did, rather than wanting serious answers to their questions.

 

One day when I was worshipping, the Lord came and told me He wanted to teach me how He teaches people, and it would answer many of the questions I'd asked the Father. The whole teaching lasted about 30 minutes as He talked of spiritual growth, but here are a couple main parts. 

 

He opened by telling me the events of John 3 & 4

"Remember when John was baptizing people and the Pharisees heard I was baptizing many more than he was? When I learned the Pharisees heard that about me I left Judea and went into Samaria on my way to Galilee. Do you know why I did that?"

 

I said, "The text says you needed to go through Samaria to get to Galilee, but why did you choose that particular route?" He responded: "Because I knew they (the Pharisees) would not follow me into Samaria. I used their prejudice as a filter, for if their hearts had truly been repentant they would not have had a problem following me into Samaria. But they had refused to submit to John's baptism of repentance and wanted to skip repentance to 'jump ahead' to my baptism, and I couldn't allow that, so I left. Learn this: I won't let people grow in deeper things until and unless they have first grown in what is before them."

 

"I often bring the secrets of a person's heart before them that they might deal with those things, and like the filter of Samaria, they cannot follow Me into deeper things until and unless they deal with what I am asking right then, as the Pharisees had to accept John's baptism of repentance before they could go on in Me. And like most of them, not everyone makes the choice to grow in me by dealing with their heart."

 

He elaborated a bit and then said: "For instance. Often I will talk to a person something that is meant to be just between us. What you would call 'pillow talk', which isn't intended to go outside the bedroom. I will tell them something I intended to be just between us, but they will call their friend and tell them what I said, or maybe over lunch share with a friend what I considered intimate and between us. Thus they have demonstrated they are not worthy of that level of intimacy, and I will stop talking to them (in that way) for a season...giving them an opportunity to seek out why their spirit was grieved when they shared it, which confuses them because they knew it came from me, yet not knowing why their spirit was grieved. That is why."

 

"And they will wonder for a time why I have stopped talking to them intimately, though I will of course still share with them on other things. But few seek it out, which shows how they value Me and intimacy with Me, or lack thereof. Remember I said the value that you place on what you hear is how it is measured back to you*. If a person does not value what we have together, but cheapens it by sharing it with others, they show me the low value they place on Me and our time together." (At this point, tears welled up in His eyes reflecting the passion with which He spoke.) *Mark 4:24-25

 

I was stunned. Up until then I had never considered He truly is the same yesterday, today, and forever. That He used difficult parables and brought prejudices of our heart before us, making us go back to cover old ground when we didn't learn the first time - it often isn't the devil bringing up issues we think are being brought up to harass us, it is sometimes the Lord trying to get us to deal with our heart and to go on in Him, and He won't move us on until we have learned our lesson. I sat speechless.

 

He had just opened up His heart to me and demonstrated an emotion that caught me totally off guard. I didn't expect Him to be so...human. The fact He could be speak intimate things between me and Him, and then do that with everyone else in the body of Christ as well, and then be so disappointed when we share what was intended to be just between Him and us, AND knowing that must happen all the time...was overwhelming. 

 

There was silence between us for what seemed to be minutes, as I just stared at Him and He at me. Part of me wanted to hug Him, part of me wanted to fall at His feet and repent. Even today as I tell this visitation, which I've never told of it anywhere start to finish with all the details (and won't so don't ask), and even now am just telling a part of it, the weight of it sits upon me.

 

He loves us so much and is in this relationship for the long haul. Ephesians 2:7 says the Father will use the ages to come to show us the riches of His love for us. Isn't it time we focused on Him? More on the above visitation next week.

 

    Blessings,

        John Fenn

cwowi.org and email me at cwowi@aol.com

 

New CD/MP3 Series

 

Undercover Overcomer: You may be one already and don't realize it. Jesus defined being an overcomer very differently than we think. It is not the winning of a race or defeating others for a prize. It is not a performance based faith that pushes on through exhaustion and times of empty spiritual wilderness. Each time Jesus used the word 'overcome' it had to do with making wise decisions under pressure, defining priorities in life, and valuing the things of Him more than the things of the world. This series shows how Jesus lays out decisions for us to make, and what being an overcomer actually means. You will find great grace and peace as you realize you're more of an overcomer than you've thought. (2 cd/MP3, $12/set or MP3 $10)

 

Simple Spiritual Growth

“He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.”
2 CORINTHIANS 5:15

With less of me, there will be more of Him in my life, so why would I resist that? There should be less of me today than there was yesterday, and there should be more of Him now than there was before. If I will submit to Him today, then tomorrow there will be yet a little more of Him and a little less of me. Praise God! Spiritual growth is not stronger anointing, greater power, or increased knowledge. Spiritual growth is “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).

Source: Embrace the Cross by Chip Brogden

Training the Planters

22 Wednesday Oct 2014

Posted by miltrodriguez in Christian Life, Church Life, God's Purpose

Many of you may not know that my wife Mary and I plant organic churches. We have been doing this for the last 20+ years. It’s been full-time for the last five years. We have planted New Testament style organic churches throughout this country (U.S.) and in Australia. We are also working with others to help see new groups established in Europe and Africa.
Recently, we have entered a new phase of this work and that is the training of new future church planters.  This is very very exciting for us!  For the last five months, four others have been with us as we plant a church in Northern California.  This has been an incredible experience for all of us involved and we ALL are learning some very spiritual and practical lessons from this experience.
One of the desires of our hearts is to present these folks that we are training to you all, our readers.  You will definitely enjoy their writings as well.  They recently did their first podcast about them being trained and you can listen by going to this blog:
http://3rdrace.org/our-first-podcast/
Enjoy!!!

The View from Above

“And [God] raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
EPHESIANS 2:6

Do you see yourself seated with Christ in the heavenlies? Paul saw it, and prayed the Ephesians would see it. When the Lord showed me that I was raised together with Christ and was made to sit (past tense) in the heavenly places with Christ, do you think it changed the way I saw the world? Absolutely! No more was I looking at things from “ground level,” but from the heavenly realm.
Things look decidedly different when viewed from above.
Source: The Irresistible Kingdom by Chip Brogden

Presidents and Little Foxes

Appleseed Travel Journal - Presidents and Little Foxes

In This Issue... Presidents and Little Foxes More Recent Articles

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Roger Just for the sake of honesty, we appreciate your prayers as we have faced a long string of ‘little foxes’ (small challenges) since leaving home. Actually, they began the night before we left when Brooks managed to have her tongue stung by a yellow jacket. Many days of pain ensued! We have also faced other maladies (flu, stomach issues), reservations that were miscommunicated, and money transfers stolen (not too much but how annoying)! In any case… Thank you for being with us in prayer and care! You may also enjoy hearing about our young Kenya team leader’s encounter with the President of Kenya just a few weeks ago. The President heard about some of the work taking place in communities and asked to see John Omondi. Though it was just a few minutes, John had the opportunity to share the kinds of transformation taking place that is both spiritual and economic. The President was impressed and indicated that he would be inviting John, in the future, to a longer dialogue! I’m sure you will be praying with us about this opportunity to have an influence on the leader of Kenya!