LONDON and ETHIOPIA

Our son Robbie traveled to London the day after Christmas to speak to a gathering of youth from churches that were primarily Ethiopian immigrants to England. They asked him to share His testimony in God’s faithfulness in his healing as a young boy, his experiences as a missionary kid who grew to become a teenage missionary and disciple-maker, and also some about his family and marriage. Below is a pic of the promo picture for the gathering and some pics from the gathering itself:


How to REALLY forgive...

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A close friend shared about a time in her life where she was having to work very hard to try to forgive two people who had wronged her greatly. She was trying hard . . . and failing. She did all the right things. She had told them she forgave them. She declared her forgiveness over them on a daily basis in prayer. Still, every time Satan wanted to get her upset and her stomach tied in knots, he would remind her of those two people and what they had done and ALL of those old feelings of bitterness and resentment would well up in her heart again. This continued for a long time until she was convicted by this verse in Jesus’ "Sermon on the Mount".

“But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you!” ~ Matthew 5:44

Like so many verses in the Bible, we often hold this in the abstract realm and think of enemies only as people “out there” somewhere that we in our everyday life never encounter or can avoid. Most of us are not in the armed forces where the battle lines are drawn and rules of engagement established.

On the other hand, many of us do have certain people invade our mind when the word “enemy” is read or heard but don’t feel compelled to actively pursue peace with them. That’s what love does by the way - it pursues peace and reconciliation when the opposite is reality.

How do we know who these “enemies" are? They are the ones that cause your blood pressure to rise when they appear or when their name is mentioned. When a demon speaks their name in the dark of night, it keeps you awake no matter how much you try to pray and “give it to God.” In that way, even if what they’ve done is long ago settled, there is still a form of “persecution” going on. Often, we would feel it is wrong to consider these people our “enemy”. Regardless, go ahead and treat them as one - like Jesus would - and love them and pray for them.

Love them by praying blessings over them. Don’t just speak forgiveness, but think of all the ways God would want to bless them and draw them closer to Him. Speak those blessings out loud. Be specific. God does an amazing work in your heart when you do this. He helps you see life from their perspective. He opens your mind to their worries, their despair, their fears and dreams. Sometimes, it even helps you understand more why they wronged you. Each time you bless them, you remove more of the burdensome curse of bitterness or unforgiveness that weighs you down.

There is something significant that happens in the spiritual realm as well. The Enemy of our soul despises prayer. He especially hates when God’s people pray blessings over others. Those prayers are powerful and effective! Satan’s hoards love to remind us of our wounds, but if our consistent and persistent reaction is to start praying blessings over those who have wounded us, those dark forces will stop reminding us!

This is what finally helped my friend find closure in her work of forgiveness. It has helped me too. Love those who have wronged you and pray for them. Jesus says in the next verse and this is how we show we belong in God’s family! Why? When we do this, we act like our Daddy!

“In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike.” ~ Matthew 5:45

Bringing a new PERSPECTIVE to Searcy

Most of you have heard the stories of how the Perspectives discipleship course has impacted us and the ministries we have been a part of. If you somehow DON’T know about Perspectives, check out the video below and then their web-site: www.perspectives.org.

My daughter Shelby has become a Perspectives coordinator and has worked hard to bring this transformative course to our hometown, Searcy, for the first time ever! God has blessed her hard work and the work of the Coordinating Team she has rounded up to help make this happen. We are super blessed by many, many churches in Searcy who want to be a part of this and especially by our three partner churches: Downtown Church of Christ, Fellowship Bible Church of Searcy, and River of Life Church.

Below is a promo video I created with the shared testimonies of our coordinating team:

If this peaks your interest and you’d like to take the Perspectives course, click on the Perspectives web-site link above, then click on “Classes” and find one near you.

And please pray that God blesses the Perspectives program here in Searcy!

10:02 AM - time to pray . . . and go!

In Luke chapter 10, when Jesus picks out 72 disciples, two by two, for a special mission. His instructions began with a purpose statement - a reason for this mission, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.” He then told them to pray this, “Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” The very next word he says is “Go!” …and yes, there is an exclamation mark in the scripture itself (at least the English translation).

I find it interesting that he told the people he was sending out to the harvest to pray for workers to send out to the harvest. When you continue to read his instructions to these newly minted missionaries, you begin to understand. They were to look for a person of peace (“PoP”) and, once found, were to stay with them and reach the community through them. Typically, if you want to reach a community, it seems logical that you should go from house to house or, at the very least, set up a large event so that a lot of people could come. This was not the Jesus style. He sent them into a village and, when they encountered someone with an open heart to them, a PoP, they were to stay with them and work through them to reach the PoP’s community. In other words, they would pray for workers for the harvest; they would go to the harvest; and they would find workers for the harvest! (not to mention empower and release them immediately into the harvest, as opposed to extracting them from their communities, sending them to seminary, etc.) This is the amazing multiplying ministry of Christ. 36 pairs of “harvest workers” go and, when they find their person of peace, you soon have 36 more workers for the harvest!

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At 10:02 in the morning each day, my phone alarm rings me and, when I look at it to see what the buzzing is all about, I read this on the screen, “Pray for workers for the harvest.” (Luke 10:2, thus 10:02) It is a good reminder that, one, the harvest is plentiful and, two, we are to pray for workers for the harvest. That’s not all though, remember Jesus’ very next word, “Go!” We are to BE a worker for the harvest. Wherever God sends us, we get to be a person of peace for those around us, sharing the good news of Jesus!

One other important note: when you read the rest of the gospel of Luke, you clearly understand that these disciples being sent did not have it all figured out. In fact, they were quite clueless to deeper truths and implications of Jesus’ presence and mission. They’re understanding of this upside-down Kingdom Jesus spoke about was elementary at best. But Jesus sent them anyway! He know that they knew enough. They knew Jesus, they knew that he brought good news of the Kingdom of God here, now, on the earth. They knew he came with God’s very authority over the earth, and even over the spiritual realm. They had a chance to represent the Messiah to the world!

“Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; but whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me.” - Luke 10:16

What was the result of their mission?

The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” [Jesus] replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.  I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.  However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” - Luke 10:17-20

NOTE: We would LOVE for you to join our prayer team, just click “Pray” in the menu above and sign up!