It seems most of the time, God reveals and provides opportunity without warning…

I was in Starbucks minding my own business, when a lady shows up with a couple large empty covered plastic containers.  A Starbucks employee proceeds to give her all the dated pastries for her containers and she hangs around at a table in front me sorting things out.

After a while, i get up to leave and go to work.  I stop in front of her and make comment that i bet she is going to make some people happy. She explains she is from the Saint Assisi or something catholic church and these pastries will go to feed the homeless.  As we are chatting about the local homeless shelter, i am doing a heart check and i think God is saying give her money.  You have to understand there was a time when giving from my excess was not challenging at all.  Today, i give from what i don’t have and i am very aware to give without God’s direction is stupid.

So as she is talking, i am thinking, “God.  Do you want me to give? i am not sure and i want to be responsible with the little i have.”  i am confident this thought was from God.  ”Whether you give or not, you will know my will when you walk out the door.”  It reminded me of the times, i heard God and chose to ignore the opportunity to be used by Him.  I get that really sick feeling in my stomach that i just blew it.

Today, i was not going to blow it.  i reached in my pocket and pulled out the exact amount God had impressed on me (without counting).  I handed it to the lady and without a word, began walking out.  She yelled, “What’s your name?”  I wish i had said, “Jesus.”

Incredible Stories of Treasure Hunts

 

Jim Taylor November 14 at 11:48pm Report

Not sure if you are familiar with the concept Archie .. there are a number of Churches and groups who do this .. My wife and I led several teams for some years doing this .. and we still do it in Africa at times…

Mark 14:

12 And the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the passover, his disciples said unto him, Where wilt thou that we go and prepare that thou mayest eat the passover?
13 And he sendeth forth two of his disciples, and saith unto them, Go ye into the city, and there shall meet you a man bearing a pitcher of water: follow him.
14 And wheresoever he shall go in, say ye to the goodman of the house, The Master saith, Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples?
15 And he will shew you a large upper room furnished and prepared: there make ready for us.
16 And his disciples went forth, and came into the city, and found as he had said unto them: and they made ready the passover.

Treasure Hunts are based on this and similar Scriptures where Jesus, who only did what the Father showed Him, gave specific commands to His followers and as they carried them out, the will of God was done.

Note above that the disciples wanted a question answered. Jesus gave them an assignment.
- Go into the city.
- Look for man carrying a pitcher of water. (this is a CLUE as to WHO to look for .. mostly women carried the water)
- Follow him where ever he goes
- When he goes into a house, approach the head man and ask “Where is the room for the Master?”
- He will show you the room.
- Get it ready.

We do the same things. We spend time fellowshipping with and worshiping the Lord.
We ask for clues as to who He wants us to share with.
We write them down.
We compare them and pray over them.
Then we go look for the clues.

EXAMPLE: During prayer my grand-daughter and I got the following clues:
- A blue baseball cap
- A couple who have had a recent sadness in their lives and God wants them to know He is aware and that He wants to restore joy to them.

So we set out. Every time we saw someone wearing a blue baseball cap we would approach them and tell them, “We are on a Treasure Hunt and our first clues was a blue baseball cap.” This opened the door to talk to them further. We found some who wanted prayer and we prayed for them, but they did not fit both clues.

After a half hour or so we met a couple, both wearing blue baseball caps. We stopped them and shared with them the clues. As we mentioned the sadness they both burst into tears. We knew we had found THE treasure we were seeking! It was so cool to see God minister to them. They received a real sense that God actually knows them .. that He is aware of their situation .. and that He is working with them regardless of how they feel!!

It’s not hard to do … EXCEPT there usually is no assurance that you are hearing correctly. You must take that “leap of faith” and get out of the boat. The worst thing that will happen is you will be totally embarrassed and humiliated. That is not always bad.

One evening during prayer we felt we were to go to a Mazzio’s Pizza that was next to a WalMart. We checked by phone and the only Mazzio’s next to WalMart that we could find was in a town 25 miles away. As we got ready to go we got the message that we were going to meet a young girl, unmarried, pregnent, who had decided to keep the child. God said we were to tell her He was pleased with the decision and to make sure she knew the baby would not be a problem.

So we wrote it down and put the note in our pocket and set off.

In Mazzio’s we ordered pizza and began to pray .. there were 8 of us. We got words of knowledge for the waitress and ministered to her. She was amazed at how God could know her life and prayed with us, then said “let me get my friends”. She brought two girls who sat down the group began to minister to them. They both gave their lives to Jesus. Then the one girl said, “Maybe God already told you, but I am pregnent”. I handed her the note and she began to weep as she read it.

It turned out that in addition to the pregnancy she had be diagnosed with pre-cancerous cells on her cervix, but because of the pregnancy they could not treat it until after the baby was born. Yet she chose not to abort, but to have the baby. And of course the fear was there .. 7 more months of cancer growing inside!

But God had clearly said the baby would not be a problem.

The ladies gathered around her, laid hands on her tummy and we prayed. As we did her womb grew hot.. almost uncomfortably so. We assured her God was healing her and she would have no problems.

As we talked with her we found she did not own a Bible. Being right next to Walmart we ran over and bought her a Bible! Now how cool is that?

We followed up with her … met the baby girl after she was born .. and kept encouraging her. She had no cancerous cells to deal with!! The last time we met with her she was doing great!

I have lots of stories similar of how God led us to people … how He read their lives to them and showed them His love … of how many came to Jesus because of a demonstration of the Kingdom. Supernatural evangelism is supposed to be the norm in the Kingdom. It’s not hard. We just have to get out of the way and get religious misconceptions out of our heads and hearts.

God loves people! He wants to show them His love. All we need to do is co-operate with Him.

Please note we do not say or believe this is THE ONLY WAY to evangelize. It is ONE WAY among many that Papa God uses. It is effective when God calls for it!

Blessings

Jim

 

 

“…there was a man who came to earth. His name was Jesus…”~Burkinabe

Guest post by Darrel and Kim Auvenshine

Christ Revealed Today at 8:49am

Every day Kim and I are praying that Christ will be revealed in the classroom while we are teaching here in Burnkina Faso. We each have a class of about 30 students, plus or minus a few. The students are all in their teens or early 20′s. We have had opportunity to speak of Christ in some of the discussions while teaching English, but today was one of those “God Spots” as my friend Archie Rhines calls it.

My class was learning how to have conversation in English on the topic of Holidays, Customs and Traditions. The students each had to select a holiday that they personally celebrate and answer questions that the other students asked about the holiday. So one of the young men stood and shared about Easter. When it happens. Who celebrates it. How do you celebrate it. etc. Then the “God Spot” happened. One of the students, said, “tell us the story”.

So this young Burkinabe stood and began to share…”there was a man who came to earth. His name was Jesus. He was born in a small town called Bethlehem. He grew up and when he was about 28 years old, he was baptized by John. After that he began to do many great things, but not everyone loved him. He said he was the Son of God and this made some people very angry. So they killed him. But three days after they killed him, he was alive again. And so we celebrate Easter because Jesus is alive!

There are students from all different religous backgrounds in our class, but I would say most of the students are secular. They know the religion of their ancesstors, but they unlikely practice themselves. At the moment when this student said, “His name is Jesus”. I felt an immediate anointing in the room. No doubt God was revealing Christ in that moment. Pray with us for the students of Burkina Faso. We pray they will know Christ personally.

“I’m moving to Guatemala and here is why.”~Jennifer

She lives in a mud hut, cooks over an open fire and was joyfully anticipating the birth of her first child. The joy slowly turned to a nightmare as she realized her child was different.  Her daughter wasn’t crawling, walking or even talking.  She looked for help, but there was no one; no rehabilitation facility or special programs. People stared. Even her husband, as his culture had taught him, blamed her for the deformities. What could she do?

One day she heard about a program in a distant village that might be able to help.  Grasping at any ray of hope she got up at the crack of dawn to travel.  First she strapped her now teenage daughter on a chair, fastened the chair to her back, and began the half hour hike down the mountains to the road.  Thirty minutes later she loaded her daughter and herself into a dirty, smoking cattle truck – the “bus” for her area.  A bumping, bruising thirty minute drive brought her to ASELSI where she found caring people, hope and genuine help.

One of many lives changed forever

Today, the daughter walks short distances with braces and a walker.  For longer distances, she uses a wheelchair. With much persistence and persuasion, by the ASELSI team, she was admitted to a local private school and is rapidly catching up to her peers – a life rescued and changed. This is just one of many wonderful stories of hope that was made possible by the physical therapy program I started in Guatemala five years ago.

Ten years ago I was discontent with my job and plagued with the question, “Isn’t there more to life than being a physical therapist?”  I had no way of knowing that God had placed this discontent in my heart to launch me on a thrilling journey, a journey that has taken me through Bible school, serving on staff at my church and numerous short trips around the globe.  But it is time to take this to the next level and expand the families helped and lives changed. It is time for me to give full time to the growth of Therapy International.

Moving to increase the number of people helped

In June, I will relocate to Guatemala expanding the program to include adult services, home visits,and teams of rehabilitation professionals who will go to other areas to start similar programs.  I will continue the work in Uganda by traveling there once or twice a year.  In order to do all this I need your help.  If you’re currently giving, thank you.  Your help means so much to me and those I am serving.  If you aren’t currently part of my support team would you prayerfully consider a twelve month pledge?

Together, we can bring hope to those without hope.

Jennifer

PS -  If you’d like to bring hope to the nations.  Consider a twelve month pledge of $25 – $100 a month.  A special gift for relocation expenses is also appreciated.

Financial support can now be directed to:

Commission to Every Nation (CTEN)

PO Box 291307

Kerrville, TX 78029-1307

or given online at www.cten.org.  (Please include a note indicating your support for Jennifer Hoines)
Personal correspondence: ptinternational@gmail.com or jenniferhoines@cten.org

“God’s love extends to the homeless. How about yours?”~priest

Sara Gwathmey Driving in to work this morning with the sunrise, stopped at a light, saw homeless woman sitting on the corner shivering. I roll my window down and ask her if she wanted my jacket and oh by the way, when was the last time you have eaten anything? Gave my jacket away and fed someone who hasn’t eaten in 3 days. Humbling. Grateful for grace today.

–
Surf to: http://www.freshc.org for a Fresh Connection…

God’s love may not get more real than this…

Daniel C. Hatch
Background and TestimonyI was raised in The Church of Christ and we religiously attended church 3 times a week, studied the bible in Sunday school, and prayed over every meal. At the young age of 8, I sincerely accepted Jesus as my savior and was baptized, but was quickly discouraged. That night, after being baptized, the other kids came up to me and wanted to play, and the adults congratulated my parents and slapped me on the back, said well done and told me to go play, then left. .

I’ll never forget the thought of, “is that all there is to it?” All too soon, I learned that the “Christian life”, (as presented by the church), was lacking something and I couldn’t live out in practice very well what I thought God wanted me to. As I grew into a young man, I followed my own ways more and more, and not wanting to be a hypocrite, quit going to church.

Never finishing college, I got married, went into the military, got a broken heart because of an adulterous wife, and spiraled down to a life of rebellion and self servitude. In 1975, the spirit of The Lord brought me to my knees and I knew He was real! I could actually see into the spiritual realm and saw a spiritual battle waging war all around me and I knew I needed Jesus to save me for real! I became a true Jesus freak! In my zeal, I proclaimed how “I” found The Lord” (ha), and preached to everyone, including my old church, about how God’s spirit is alive and still working today! They were not receptive to that revelation and before long, kicked me out!

Now I was certainly young in the Lord, and hungering for more and more knowledge of God, I listened to many, many tapes and teachings. I would read the bible, but would mostly look to the “pentecostal or charismatic” teachers. I found myself caught up in one of the charismatic churches that proclaimed some bad teachings and “doctrines”, and when I got close to the internal functions of the church (business and daily workings of the leadership), I saw a lot of the heresy that has permeated “the church” today. When that leadership fell because of sin, along with several personal struggles and failures in my life, business and family, and not being well grounded in GOD’S truth, I was crushed and spiritually wounded. I was filled with confusion, anger, inner guilt and disappointments. Again I spiraled down to a life of rebellion and eventually screwed up my second marriage. Alcohol, drugs, sex, you name it, I was into it.

Over the next decade and a half, I was a miserable soul! Tortured by the knowledge of the reality of God and yet not fellowshipping with Him, I struggled with trying to put my life in order to the best of my ability. Disappointments and hurts, failed marriages and unfulfilled expectations that were prevalent in my life eventually gave way to a form of stability and success. I married again; Janie was a good woman with 3 children she had raised on her own; two girls and a boy and all young adults. They graciously accepted me into the family and I soon found the pleasures of being looked at as a father figure and before too long a grandfather! Life was good at last. We considered ourselves Christians, but just didn’t go to church or get too carried away with it.

Time passed until once again, life dealt harshly with us with the loss of our business and after another horrific and tragic event that I won’t get into detail about now, I knew the emotional turmoil and devastation was far more than I could handle on my own. I cried out to God and in His grace and mercy, He answered me! I guess it took that much for me to finally surrender ALL and be still before Him. Janie, on the other hand, was embittered and even openly against God and wanted no part of anything that included Him, even me if that’s who I wanted to follow.

The next five or six years were filled with open hostility on the home front and downright persecution. I kept pleading for God to intervene on my behalf and make Janie change. Each request was answered by an instruction for ME to change and surrender another part of myself and leave Janie to Him. I can truly testify of going “through the valley”, but God was with me and my relationship with Him deepened.

You know, the bible says that bitterness will rot your bones and I actually saw that happen to Janie. As time went on, and Janie’s health deteriorated, she rebelled so hard against the gentle prodding of God’s spirit, while the more I surrendered myself to Him, He revealed more and more of Himself to me. Prayer that typically revolved around helping me, changed to one of praying FOR her. I believe God allowed me to once again see into the spiritual realm and witness the warfare taking place, not only in Janie, but inside of me too. I saw the battle, not as a Rocky Balboa type fight where good finally or barely triumphs in the last moment, but as the truths in God’s word standing firm against all lies and efforts of the enemy to change it. The truth is the truth and it can’t be changed! What a revelation!

Janie began to show signs of listening to God’s call and one glorious day, surrendered to the love of God in Christ Jesus! Bitterness was traded for forgiveness and rebellion traded for surrender. What a transformation and what a joy! She was so energetic and eager to share with the kids and grandkids and for several months we all enjoyed going to church together. On September 24, 2008, Janie went home to be with The Lord.

I have agonized over this writing (it’s taken me all day). The mental and emotional strain has been intense, and I have tried to condense everything to keep it reasonable in size but it’s still lengthy. I would like to conclude by letting you know I have so much more to learn and although I’m not where I want to be in the Lord, I’m not where I once was and the work that The Lord began in me (and now I pray in you), He will complete! Praise God for He IS worthy!

“…take me when you must, but heal me till the day you do…” ~Joey

God is healing every aspect of my life . God is so big for our tiny minds to really understand .

A little over a year ago before I got sick, I was preaching about love and forgiveness, and the Lord dropped in my spirit ” you hypocrite ” . Then Boom, the brakes were slammed and I realized that I had not even forgiven my own Father . Now this is another story for another time but in short I allowed God to restore that relationship.  ” meanwhile back at the bat cave ” I ended up sick as a dog and in code blue several times, most of you know this, you all have been a great support system for me in my time of need .

Anyway, so while I am sick, and learning that my Dad is not quite the monster that I was brainwashed into believing , it was starting to look like I may or may not make it through the summer . Blah, blah, blah, most of you know this already . So I said Lord, I am at peace, I submit to your will, what so ever that may be.

He dropped in my spirit to make peace with everyone I had hurt in the past, and to inform the mothers of my children of my medical issues so they could be prepared in case my other children should start having similar symptoms. I was preparing for death . My relatives were making trips to see me , my Father was going to fly down , but something told me to hold off on that one . Some of you were there for me, saw me sicker than a dog, for that I thank you, others of you, I did not want you to see me, ” Sorry Miss Majors ” I was to contagious at the time, even know I wanted the robot.  HEHE

The point I am trying to make is Cori one of my baby’s mother decided she was going to let me be in my daughters life, not only one natural, but another precious Angel that called me Daddy when she was a baby, and she has never stopped being my daughter in my heart anyway . She also has a newborn that my wife and I have spiritually adopted, which is fun because we can no longer get pregnant .

So going back to my Father, he did come down a few weeks ago, which was perfect timing, because he got to meet five of his grand kids as well .

God healed me from the inside first . And I praise him for it ! Now he is healing my body from every aspect . Even my right ear, which is so trivial, but it has been giving me issues, a huge ball of wax the size of a rabbit pellet was just waiting for me to pull out.

Our bodies are temples, His spirit Dwells within us, He does not want to dwell in an unclean sickly temple. So I said God, I rebuke this sickness in your name, take me when you must, but heal me till the day you do, and my health has been improving every since.

I am starting all over, yes, I may have lost the big bucks, the house, and all the things society sees as success . But I have God, my wife, my children and my life. I have my family and all of you . To me, I am the richest man on earth . And I praise God for just being God. I wish you all a wonderful day.

Love,

Joey

“God revealed a mystery to me last night.” ~priest

I want to ask forgiveness of all the people I have met in my lifetime that have pain or an illness that can’t be fixed.  God has blessed me my entire life with incredibly good health.  I could not relate to the pain others felt suffering from long term poor health.  Sure, I felt bad for them.  But, only for an instant.  After all, I felt good.  Forgive me.

With my recent migraines, I am beginning to appreciate the physical and mental suffering of others.  This experience will likely be one of the biggest blessings of my life time.  It seems the price of knowledge and understanding is not always cheap.  The cost of love even more, so.

This picture is a picture of a man I don’t know, but I am sure it is representative of millions around the world who are confused, hungry and lost.  This picture is my self portrait without Jesus.  I am still a man.  I still think.  I still have dreams and passions, but most will never be fulfilled.  I am starved for the love of Christ.

In the midst of my headaches, I have been praying God draw me close.  Don’t let this suffering be for nothing.  Place value in my head hurting.  Teach me what you want to teach me.  Order my steps.  Reveal your pleasure on my life.  Show me your purpose in life.

God gave me this picture of man without Jesus.  Look at the eyes.  See the insatiable desire and hunger.  Look at the hands designed to have purpose and function, but having no strength.  Look at the lips having desire to speak, but no words of value to say.  Look at the nose, ready to breath in the essence of Jesus, but smelling only the stench of death.  This is a picture of me without Jesus.

God revealed a mystery to me last night.  It likely won’t be much of a mystery to you, because unless God reveals, words are just stuff on paper.  But for me the revelation is mind blowing.  The truth places great meaning on my life and yours.  I’ll save the revelation for a future blog as I work through its implications, but I want you to know Jesus loves you.

Without Jesus, life is hell and eternity is waiting….

On ‘O’Reilly’, Brit Hume Reaffirms His Faith; Tells Tiger Woods He Should to Turn to Christianity

“…and if not let him overdose and die.” ~addicted

Uncle Archie,

I had an amazing experience on new years eve. After considering what you said about talking to homeless people, I finally had an opportunity when one asked me for some money, to ask him if he had ever seen God do anything for him. He wasn’t exactly homeless, but awfully close.

He proceded to tell me how after a life of cocaine and heroin addiction, losing his wife, children, and even the support of his own mother, he moved from California to Oklahoma. He prayed to God that if Jesus was real he wanted to have him in his life and if not let him overdose and die.

That was 1994, he had been clean for fifteen years, he was out with others in the area trying to raise money for the homeless shelter many recovering addicts stay at. He had much more to say, and with such passion and conviction, it was evident God was at work in his life.

Thanks for a great idea, I look forward to my next opportunity to do that again!
Todd