Parking Wars!

After running my route this evening, I was pulling back into the BFWC parking lot to drop off the van and I noticed a man asleep inside a parked car. As I was parking, a man walked up to the van almost kind of dazed. I got out, reached to shake his hand and asked if everything was all right.

The man, said "Hello, my name is Gary. I just moved here from out of state, and recently started a new jo...b. I have no family in Indiana, so rather than pay for a motel, I have decided to live out of my truck for a few weeks, until I have the funds to get an apartment. Do you mind if I sleep out here in your parking lot?" I told him, feel free, for as long as you need.

He then went on to say, he had been sleeping in another church parking lot, but was eventually asked to leave, so he came to ours! He stated he was actually drawn to our parking lot, and that he sensed a peaceful atmosphere. He said, he was glad I pulled up and had taken the time to speak with him. Then I began to ask him how he was doing, if he was enjoying life, did he know the Lord, and did he need prayer for anything.
He then pointed to a cross on his arm, and said, "yeah, I go to church." That is not what I wanted to know. I then shared with him what God has done in my life, and just where He has brought me from.
Then I asked him an even harder question. I said, "Gary, I've told you what God has done in my life. Can you honestly say in your heart 100%, that you have fully surrendered your life to Christ, and that God has and is completely changing you from the inside out?"
He said, "no."So, just that quick, I asked him to repeat after me, we prayed and right then he surrendered his life to Christ!

 Give God glory!

What Do I Want To See? "The Unimaginable"

Don't get discouraged with the ministry God has given you! I believe it's going to take individuals with a heart full of passion and a Holy Ghost anointing to hold out, wait on God, continue on in well doing to see God do the unimaginable.

When it's God, it will be the unimaginable!
Don't settle merely seeing your expectations for ministry met!
(Galatians 6:9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.)
The harvest spoke of in Galatians 6:9 is not an ordinary harvest!

It's a harvest of Ephesians 3:20 proportion! (Ephesians 3:20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,)

God can only do in you what you will allow Him to do.
Don't allow poor (lowered) expectations brought on by long periods of waiting, to hinder God's power in your life and ministry. You will be tempted with mediocrity!

If you are believing for souls to be won (which we all should, because all Christians are soul winners), God has called you to believe the unimaginable!
If you are believing for marriages to be saved, God has called you to believe the unimaginable!
If you are believing for your youth group to (just get it) rise to the call of God on their lives, God has called you to believe the unimaginable!
If you are believing for a wife, or a husband, God has called you to believe the unimaginable!
If you are believing for your business to take off the ground, God has called you to believe the unimaginable!

 I could go on and on. This is just something God has revealed to me, and I hope it helps you.
Also, this is not just to be applied in the area of ministry, this goes for any seeds sown, even businesses.

Best believe, if you walking in covenant with Christ, believing God for any increase, or harvest--it will be unimaginable!

What's in it for me?

Right Gift but Wrong Time

If God gave me now, all He has intended for me to have later. I couldn't possibly handle it. (James 1:17) Every good and perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights who does not change like the shadows. God loves us enough to hold things back--even the things we "think we need". God sees our true needs and desires, just as a Father does his own child (Matthew 6:8).

You see God loves us so much! (Psalm 84:11) says that He would withhold no good thing from them who walk uprightly  That word is true! One reason every perfect good and perfect gift is good and perfect is that it comes from the Father above. Another reason is the time in which that gift is given.

Let's look at the story of the prodigal son in (Luke 15:11-16).  The son went to his father and demanded his share of the inheritance. The father reluctantly, but all the more passively gave the son his share of the inheritance. The son left home and wandered to a foreign exotic land where he spent every dime of what his father had given him. When famine hit that land the son found himself working in the pig fields eating slop meant for pigs.  Think about it. This earthly father, rather than putting his foot down, and saying. No! He gave the son just what he wanted, when he wanted it, which eventually harmed everyone in the process.

A new born baby is a good gift. However, if that baby were to be delivered 7 months early you wouldn't call that a good gift. You would call that a tragedy. You see bypassing the time of gestation would cause an otherwise perfect gift to cause grief and pain. The same way we cannot bypass the growth process in our own lives and walk with Christ. Without the proper level of maturity we may wind up being cursed by the very thing we thought was a blessing.

I am extremely grateful my Father loves me enough not to give me everything I want when I want it! Even though He could, the very fact that He doesn't is one of the things that makes Him so great.
Somebody better start thanking God for not sending you that wife or that husband yet. And start praising Him for when He will. Thank Him for not giving you that bigger house yet when you can't pay for the one you've got. Thank Him for not giving you that newer car yet, when you can't keep the two you already have in your garage clean. What?? Appreciate what you do have. Take care of what He has already blessed you with!

Lastly, if you have been praying and asking God for something, but don't seem to be getting an answer. That doesn't necessarily mean NO. It might just be a NOT RIGHT NOW

To everything there is season, and a time for every purpose under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

1. Continue on doing what you know to do is right. (Ecclesiastes 12:13)
2. Be faithful where you are at and with what you've got. (Matthew 25:23)
3. Wait on the Lord. (Psalm 37:34)
4. Delight yourself in the Lord. (Psalm 37:4)
5. Do not become weary. (Galatians 6:9)
6. Continue seeking God first. (Matthew 6:33) & (Matthew 6:8)

Honoring My Grandpa, "Poppy"

This was a newspaper article that was published in "The Reporter" (Newspaper) and a part of my grandpa's book.

 Thomas Lane, of Camby, also fought in the war, lived through a typhoon in the Philippines and was at Bikini Island when the atomic bomb was tested. 

He enlisted in 1944 in the Navy and was assigned to the LSM 481. He served on that ship through the war. Part of the time he was stationed in the Philippinies, which is where he encountered the typhoon. He was strapped in his bunk for three days because no one could walk around on the ship. After the Japanese surrender, his ship was sent to Japan to help unload tanks for several weeks. 

    When he finished there, he was transfered to the USS Rockbridge which was assigned to Bikini Island for several months.  

Thomas explained that the U.S. dropped one bomb from a plane and one was set off in the hold of a ship. Animals had been placed on one ship for observation by scientists. "Our job was to take the scientists in to check on the animals and feed them," he said.

He remembers the submarines, aircraft carriers, destroyers, and battleships which were arranged in a two to three mile circle around the target battleship. He also remembers that it was "awful" out there. The island itself was hot and dry and there wasn't anything to do on it but play games and visit a tavern. He said, "I didn't like their beer, so I didn't go ashore." 

What was it like to see an atomic bomb detonated? 

"I'll never forget that," he says flatly. "All of us sat on the deck with our heads like this (covered by arms). But I looked up, right square at it."  

He said the second detonation especially scared him. "There was a mountain of water. You could see the ship going up in the middle of the water." Although his ship was anchored 7-1/2 miles away, he said he could "look up and see montrous water coming your way." He stayed in an area two or three weeks after the test, then came home. After his discharge in 1947, he worked for Bridgeport Brass for 32 years. He also worked as a carpenter for the Indiana Boy's School in Plainfield for 11 years and then retired

Wait, I Say

My problem is, that I try, too hard sometimes. Finally, when I have exhausted myself, and my own resources the Lord steps in and makes happen, just what He said He would happen all in an instant. (Habakkuk 2:3) says, "For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not delay."

 Just cause He spoke it doesn't mean I'm the one to go out and make it happen on my own terms. (Proverbs 19:21) says, "There are many plans in a man's heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand." It is the Apostle Paul that has said in (1 Corinthians 3:6) who says, " have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase." After many attempts in the past to make stuff happen all on my own I finally received great revelation of (Philippians 4:13) "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

 I know that only in Jesus do I succeed! All the devices of the heart and flesh have ill intent in them. Ohh, but when I am lead of the Lord, failure is hopeless and my success is inevitable! (Romans 8:31) If God is for me who can be against me? (Romans 8:38) For in Him I am more than a conquerer!

Heleighluiah!

What kind of words are coming out of my mouth? WWJS?

Instead of trying to make those things that are as though they weren't,(by whatever means of choice) start calling those things that aren't as though they were! Romans 4:17

Instead of wallowing in regret, dissatisfied with the way things are now because of what happened then, I will move on to those things which are ahead knowing that what I do now will determine what happens then.

The power of life and death is in the tongue and they that love it will eat the fruit thereof. Proverbs 18:21

And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. Romans 8:11 

Not only have I been given life from God through Christ Jesus, but I have been given also the power to speak life through the life that dwells within me by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Come on and just let God's life giving power flow out of you today. People's hurting and defeated souls can be quickend-(made full of life) by the words that you speak today if you would just let it happen. 
He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. John 7:38
There have been times that I have not known what to say when being confronted with someone who is hurting, but as the scripture hath said....John 7:38 took place and then that person that wanted to commit suicide is miracuously crying out to God and accepting Jesus as Lord. In what almost seemed like an instant what came out of me that I didn't even know was there, had just quickened a soul. That is the power of the Almighty God.