GreenRiverDreamer13

A Year Gone By

It's been some time since I updated this blog and in that time a lot has changed in my life.

Most of the changes occurring in outward, physical ways. As far as outwardly good changes go, there are 2 that have dominated, a new job, with more benefits than any previous job, and more success coaching than any previous year.

However, there have also been some changes that most would consider detrimental to my ongoing spiritual growth, primarily the inability to attend regular services at my church due to my lack of transportation.

The Lord has blessed me in unexpected ways though, by providing ways for me to minister to others from time to time, as well as receive from those I trust. This most recent example having occurred just 10 days ago at my best friend's house in Austin.

My best friend, T, and I stayed up until after midnight with his brother K, and our friends A and R, discussing a wide range of spiritual topics. I found it to be an encouraging and uplifting time, as I had the opportunity to bless them all by explaining and discussing the spiritual repercussions of my parent's separation and subsequent divorce, nearly 4 years ago.

This obviously not an area of discussion I would have with just anybody, but it created an atmosphere where I allowed the Lord to expose me to my friends and by displaying that personal vulnerability I was able to bless them and that in turn was a huge blessing to me, too.

The point of these ramblings has been to show that, while the past year could have been a terrifying time and I could have retreated into a shell, until this latest wilderness period has run its course. I choose to believe that I have continued to grow and that that growth is continuing at a rapid pace.

After all, I'm glad God didn't give me any advance warning of what He was planning in my life, or I might have allowed fear to creep in. Instead the blessings continue to flow in the most mysterious of ways.

Praise the Lord!

Patience

...was the theme for me today. The most obvious occurance that clinched it for me, besides having A tell me that I needed more patience, was when the first thing I did in church this morning was spend 40+ min. praying at the Timing Gate.

That was the first and only place I felt led to go when I arrived at church. In fact, I had planned on driving to pick up something from the store on my way back into town, but instead I exited the highway and my car nearly drove itself to church.

It's a good thing too, because I was on the verge of sleep-driving as I drove to church. Praise the Lord, nobody was involved in any accidents with me, in spite of my inability to keep a focused eye on the road in front of me.

Great & Mighty Things

Over the last month or so, I've been spending a lot of time focused on two different verses that are intertwined in unique way: Jeremiah 33:3 and Proverbs 6:30-31.

Since my last post had to deal with the 'love of money', I felt that now would be an excellent opportunity to show that God is not against us having money and that's not what I was attempting to say. Hopefully that came through in the post, but I believe that these two verses can illustrate this point even better than I may be able to.

In Jer. 33:3, we find that we are commanded to request that He show us great and mighty things that we do not already know. In other words, God is commanding us to search for mysteries because He wants to share them with us. God doesn't want us to be operating blind, He wants us to be active participants with Him in understanding how the spiritual world works and the only way to do that is by seeking Him and asking Him to reveal these hidden things to us.

Well, it was pointed out to me that Prov. 6:30-31 contained a hidden mystery that most of us tend to gloss right over, at least I know I did.

"Men do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry;
"But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house."
KJV

Who is the thief? Is this just a different version of Aesop's fables that was first told by Solomon? Or is this something that can apply to us in this modern age of technology? If it is, how would we apply it?

Well, the first answer is that it is not just another fable that doesn't apply to us, nothing in the Bible has just one meaning. There are always new insights that we can glean, if we allow the Lord to reveal the hidden things to us.

In this case, because I am a child of God's the thief is the enemy (you know, Satan, the devil, etc.) and the reason we know this to be the case is a matter of deductive reasoning. We know that Satan goes around as roaring lion seeking whom he may destroy (I Peter 5:8) and that Satan seeks to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10).

In the second passage, John 10:10, we also notice that Satan is referred to as the thief, just as he is in Prov. 6:30-31.

Now that we have established that Satan is the thief in question, we can rightly deduct that he can not kill or destroy us, because he doesn't have God's permission to do so. (Job 1:6-12 is a situation where we learn that Satan still has access to God, so that he can accuse us and be the prosecuting attorney in the case against us being allowed into heaven.) However, if we have allowed Satan an access point through our spiritual armour, then he will have the ability to steal from us.

At least that's what was exposed in my life. However, because I have been made aware of the fact that 'the thief' has been stealing from me, I am able to go back through my life and pinpoint exact situations and circumstances where he has been able to steal the future, both financial and otherwise, right from underneath my feet.

Now for the victory! Because of the promise in Proverbs 6:31, I now have the ability, through the power God gives each of His children, to demand that Satan, the thief, return sevenfold what he stole from me PLUS the substance of his household!

For me personally, this covers a period of about 15+ years of my life, a string of jobs that I was unable to work for more than 12 months, a number of businesses that I started and was never successful at, a number of business and athletic opportunities that never panned out (seemingly for one reason or another, now I know that they were all the same reason), and a handful of personal relationships that fell apart for reasons that I never seemed to understand.

I'm currently compiling a worksheet of damages and over the next few weeks, I will be bringing it before the Lord, seeking His face and asking that He show me what to demand as sevenfold retribution, as well as what to demand as the substance of the enemy's household!

While I believe bygones are bygones with regards to the personal relationships, I do believe that this final step of healing is necessary before I am able to move forward into the next relationships in each of these areas. Those who know me, know that I have been able to forgive the individuals involved in each of these relationships that were stolen from me, but it is my belief, now that I know what was occuring spiritually, that I must finally gain the right measure of retribution from the enemy, before I can truly move forward.

This is especially true, because I have not been able to enter into a new relationship with anyone in these areas of my life. While I don't feel that that is a complaint, I know that wounds must be healed before growth can occur and that's all I'm seeking in this case.

Right now however, I'm heading for bed. I have a long weekend coming up, starting tomorrow, and on Sunday I'll be fasting for the team that's traveling through Europe. I chose to fast on Sunday, because that's my number, #13, and because of the location the team will be in on that day. It's the home of one of the sports clubs I used to follow as a kid. Although I was privileged to travel to that country when I was in high school, I didn't get the opportunity to go to the city in question.

Now, 8 years later, I get to fast and pray instead. Hallelujah!

The Love of Money Explained

My reading this morning was in Hebrews. I'll write another post later regarding a couple of other scriptures in Hebrews that caught my eye, but right now I want to focus on Hebrews 13:5-6.

We all grew up thinking that we knew the passage about "the love of money is the root of all evil", but let me share with you what the writer says here in Hebrews.

"Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ?Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.?[a] 6So we say with confidence, ?The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me??[b]"
NIV

"Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
6So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me."
King James Version

Finally, let me share what I read in my Bible this morning that struck me as so amazing:

"Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be satisfied with what you have.
For God has said, "I will never leave you; I will never abandon you.?
6Let us be bold, then, and say: "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?"
Good News Bible

Did you catch that? While God commands us to live lives free from the love of money, we always leave off the second half of the verse: "I will never leave you; I will never abandon you."

No wonder so many, including me, have trouble allowing God to move in our lives. Instead we try to legislate how much money we believe God owes us. It doesn't work that way.

Focus on God, be satisfied with what we have, both in the present and what God has laid before us to accomplish in the future, and God will always be with us. He will always make sure that we have what is necessary to live.

Most-times, that will include enough to give an offering, above and beyond our tithes, but that's a discussion for another day.

Today, we need to focus on God, instead of trying not to love money.

Having Nearly Been Married

It's kind of interesting to take these highly unscientific "purity" tests. I've taken this one before, but have no recollection as to my previous score, not that it matters.

Anyways, here's the current version:

Here is the result of your 1000 Point Purity Test.
You answered "yes" to 228 of 1000 questions, making you 77.2% sexually pure (22.8% sexually corrupt); that is, you are 77.2% pure in the sex domain.
Your Weirdness Factor (AKA Uniqueness Factor) is 28%, based on a comparison of your test results with 49021 other submissions for this test.

The average purity for this test is 72.5%.
The first submission for this test was received March 5, 1996.

This test was quite popular during my college days, and unfortunately, for some it was a checklist rather than a true test.

Distractions Abound

Feb. 6th, 2005
14:19

Distractions abound
All around

Frustration rises up
As I cry for help

It seems as though
I may not know

The whys and
Wherefors, even

Though my mind
Stumbles blind

Into the hows
It still won't show

What the Lord
Seeks on my accord

Excuses instead, so
I must learn to go

Before Him in
Total desperation

Seeking His heart
Will be my part

Then I can
Begin to understand

His plan to restore
What the devourer

Sought to steal
Now He will heal

And return sevenfold,
Substance of his household

Since I have found
The enemy is bound

And I am restored,
Thanks be the Lord.

Based on Proverbs 6:30-31

The Color of My Life

Growing up my favorite color was red, specifically the cherry red I wanted my future Corvette to be. While I still don't have the Corvette, I do keep this on my desktop as a reminder.

Looking back now, with the hindsight that is based upon recent revelation in my life, combined with a knowledge of how the 7 Spirits of God correspond with the 7 colors of the true rainbow*, I see that in all reality my favorite color should have been green.

While this is not the time or place to go into all the colors and their relationships with the 7 Spirits of God, let me simply refer you to Revelation 1:4 for now and come back to it later.

Of course, the first thing you're going to notice is that the dream I referenced, when I launched this blog, had a green river flowing through it, that was principle to the meaning of the dream.

This morning however, as I was reading my daily Bible reading, actually I was catching up for a couple of missed days while out of town, I got to thinking about the year in which I was born.

Currently, using the spiritual calendar of TFC as a reference, we are in the year of Grace and Supplication, which is represented by the color orange, and is the second year in the 7 year cycle.

It turns out that I was actually born in a year represented by green, which also signifies Life/Supply, in addition to representing prophecy, present truth, and healing.

Finally, for those of you who are not aware, green is the fourth year in the 7 year cycle, thus also representing the mid-point in the cycle.

College Brothels

While I was out of town, I read a friend's copy of Christianity Today, which had an interesting article on the brothels that are college dormitories.

If I can find a link to the article online, I'll post it later. In the meantime, I wanted to say that not only do I concur with the thoughts expressed in the article, but that my own college experience closely mirrorred the experience discussed in the article.

The university that I attended, while it had a very Christian sounding name, was definitely Christian in name only. In fact, during my 3rd semester on campus, there was a student body vote on whether to ask the university to adjust its non-discrimination policy to include the phrase, sexual orientation.

After discovering who the young man in charge of writing the disenting opinion was, I proceeded to track him down. I came to find out that while he definitely didn't want to support the vote, he was concerned that writing such a controversial commentary would have a negative effect on his future political aspirations.

Needless to say, he had no problem letting me take over the responsibility of writing the commentary. During the course of writing the commentary, I mentioned that the university was definitely on course to becoming a member of the denomination it was named after in name only. Part of my argument was the denomination's own anti-discrimination policy, as well as the Bible's references to homosexual behavior.

After the commentaries publication, I received a significant amount of support, but was also accused of being discriminatory by a number of people who had previously claimed to be friends of mine.

I share this story, because it is not at all a surprise to me that Christianity Today would comment on the current collegiate atmosphere and its similarity to brothels. Colleges around the nation, have no problem with, and in fact encourage, women and men in attendance to experiment sexually in whatever ways they should choose.

My only question would be...

What took you so long?

UPDATE: I added the link to the Christianity Today article.

Leaving Town

Well, I'll be gone for the weekend, but I'll be sure and make a post as soon as I get back.

For now, let me leave you with some thoughts from my morning devotional the other day.

I was reading in my Good News Bible, in Revelation 2, when I read one of the most encouraging and challenging calls to action, in verses 24 through 29:

"But the rest of you in Thyatira have not followed this evil teaching; you have not learnt what the others call 'the deep secrets of Satan'. I say to you that I will not put any other burden on you. But until I come, you must hold firmly to what you have.
"To those who win the victory, who continue to the end to do what I want, I will give the same authority that I received from my Father: I will give them authority over the nations, to rule them with an iron rod and to break them to pieces like clay pots. I will also give them the morning star.
"If you have ears, then, listen to what the Spirit says to the churches!"

My Church

If you're curious as to the church I attend, it's The Father's Church, which is located in Dallas, TX.

After having grown up in a much larger church, I was invited to attend TFC before it became what it is now. At the time, I was in college in Dallas, and lacked transportation to my parent's church, but that was God's plan.

After I left school, I returned to my parent's church one last time and came to the realization that the Lord wanted me to make TFC my church. Although we've gone through a lot of upheaval, I thank the Lord that He placed me in TFC as I know that I would not otherwise be as receptive to what the Lord has done, is doing and will continue to do in TFC and in me.

Having grown up visiting large numbers of churchs all over the world and hearing many different men (and women) of God speak, I believe that Pastor Crawford is as close to a direct conduit from the Lord for this present time, as I could ever be under the authority of. For that reason, among many others, I feel in awe of the Lord that He would require me to be a part of TFC.

Praise the Lord!

Posted by at 12:55.23 PM CST
Categories: apologetics, hereandnow