I have been writing a book I guess you can say for the past number of years, and as it progresses, release it as part of leaving a legacy for my children and for all those out there who don’t REALLY know what is meant by ‘The FURIOUS Love of God”, found in Christ Jesus, my Lord!
You know, I was saved, Father’s Day June 15, 1997, and through that time up through today, wow, what a journey it has been with my God! But I have to tell you, it wasn’t until 17 YEARS later 2014, that God AMBUSHED me as Brennan Manning says…. It was then that God gave me a glimpse of his AGAPE Love, as I rested in the cleft of the rock…
It was at that time that I came to a realization that i was holding back, and actually blocking God from REALLY loving me… After seeing the Ragamuffin movie, story of Rich Mullins, it was then that I made a decision to just let go, lay back in the arms of my Abba Father, and with Jesus, and LET God LOVE ME! I let go of my shame, guilt of my past, and let God love me…. More to come on that later!
I was a brutal emotional mess for weeks and months while I processed these emotions, this new FURIOUS LOVE, that I did not know before. My heart burst, my dreams cried out at night… I found myself up in the middle of the night most nights writing like a mad-man, trying to get everything out God was showing me. The scriptures were alive within my heart and soul….just pouring out of me continually….
Well, I started writing this journal, and though I will one day release it as a complete work, I want to share it with you along the way…So, let us journey together as we embark into this place called ‘The FURIOUS LOVE of GOD!’
NOTE: New Chapters as added, will post here and a link on our Facebook Page… I will deliver this to you a chapter at a time, but it will be one complete work, so you will want to scroll to find what chapter you left off at. – God Bless!
This journal was inspired by many, first by my Abba God, who has encouraged me from the very beginning in my writings. I have always said that I am not a writer, but I only write what God inspires me to write and put on these pages. So I guess you can say these are God’s intimate inspirations spoken to my heart from His Word in scripture. This is all part of the encompassing “Furious Love of God” that I can write this as God moves through me and around me to inspire these workings.
Second, thank you Rich Mullins, for your inspiration and for leaving a legacy behind when you left us here in 1997, an aroma of Christ that permeates through me. Your words spoken through your ministry has truly been a guide leading me back to Christ over the years and helped me grow in Christ, and I am eternally thankful beyond words. There is so much more to say, but I hope to say it face to face one day in Heaven…Thank You!
I would also like to thank the creators of ‘Ragamuffin’ Movie – Color Green Films (Director, David Leo Schultz) and all the amazing actors and contributors to the film, including Rich’s family for their hard work and interviews for the film. This film introduced me for the first time to the similarities to Rich Mullins life to my own, and answered many questions of my own hurts from my own past with my dealings with my dad, struggles, unique loneliness I felt, longing for God, dealing with my own fears, failures, hurts, hang-ups, sense of grave disappointment to God, defined later as being ‘a Ragamuffin’….. This glimpse into Rich’s life changed me forever, thank you!
I would like to offers special thanks to another man who I was introduced by ‘Ragamuffin’, Brennan Manning, who I never knew in person before his passing, however I have grown to love this man through his testimony, the good, bad and the ugly, just his cold hard truth of the life we experience as Ragamuffins… His words spoken through his ministry and messages such as “The Abba Experience”, “God Loves You Just as You are and not as you should be”, have changed my life forever and given me a new not only hope, but view of my God and His love for me! Brennan’s messages coupled with the life of Rich Mullins has pointed me to my Abba who was right in front of me all along, and my Abba breathed new life into my Spirit, so I am now experiencing “The Furious Love of God!” And I can’t and never will go back, and will be changed forever…
Last but definitely not least, to my beautiful wife, Lynnea and my kids, they are my most precious gift from my God, and I don’t deserve them, yet HE blesses me! It is another thing that I will never understand… They have been not only my encouragement, but my strength, my cheerleaders to push through. Lynnea has given me the space needed to meditate on God’s Word, cry, laugh, and listen to the word God has for me to write, it has been a wonderful journey, made possible because of her Agape unconditional love for me. May God continue to give me the strength to lead them as their spiritual head, and give me the grace to fall upon as well, as we Ragamuffins MOST often need!
May this journal be a legacy left to my family pointing them to experience the richness of “The Furious Love of God”, in Christ Jesus! May the stories contained within give a glimpse into their Dad, Mom, Grandpa, Grandpa’s and Aunt’s and Uncle’s lives, including funny family stories throughout my life, all leading them back to Jesus Christ and the FURIOUS Love of God!
This book is dedicated to:
My wife Lynnea and my children, my siblings, extended family and friends, and my family of Ragamuffins…
The “Furious Love of God”, it is a statement, no, it’s a lot more than just a statement…Is it a Principle, not really, it just is… Just as God is who He is…because it describes God’s relationship with you and I, his great Love for you and I! If you can imagine like in a cartoon, someone being furious with you, you can picture the face turning red, horns coming out of their head, just steaming and about to explode in anger at you! It is a frightening thing when someone says they are furious with you…..you kind of want to hide in a corner and hope they don’t see you! Well, turn that around, and apply that same great emotion, that same level of almost exploding, not being able to contain it, and replace anger with AGAPE Love! Let’s take a look at the comparison now with Agape applied!
Now we have a “Furious Agape” coming from God the father! The foundation of agape is an unselfish, unconditional, abandoning all logic, unsurpassed love in action, regardless of what you and I say or didn’t say, do or didn’t do, feel or didn’t feel, love that God has toward us that is not at all based on us, but His own “Furious Love” for mankind! God Loved us first, while we were yet in sin (1 John 4:10) Brennan manning calls it, ‘A Furious Love Affair’ with you and I! When you think about when you dated your bride-to-be, you probably did things that defied logic; we had a tendency to lose all sense of ourselves, almost a reckless abandon type love! There was just about nothing we wouldn’t do to win our spouse-to-be’s heart! Well ‘Furious Agape’ is just like that and more… God sent his ONLY Son Jesus who was with him from the very beginning, in HIS great ‘Furious Agape’ knowing mankind had no hope of spending eternity with Him because of our great sin, Jesus left heaven and all his glory with reckless abandonment, became God in flesh born as a baby in a manager, chose to live this difficult life, experience all the pains, sufferings, hardships, temptations and joys we experience, yet without sin because He was God in flesh. Jesus became our propitiary sacrifice, our substitution for you and I, who deserved the ultimate death and eternal separation from God in Hell because of our great sin……Keeping it real folks! Jesus took all your sins and my sins upon himself and God poured his entire wrath out upon Jesus on that cross, and Jesus in the end proclaimed ‘It Is Finished!’…… Once and for all, Sin, and Death has been conquered because of Jesus Christ paying for your sins, GRACE, HOPE, FAITH, SALVATION and ETERNAL LIFE for you and I have entered the picture because of the “Furious Love of God!” Let this journal be a guiding light for you, pointing you to the scriptures, to God’s LIVING Word, and may you experience the fullness and intensity of “The Furious Love of God”!
Oh, how He LOVES you and me….do you recall the lyrics to that simple yet profound song…The Holy Spirit is working through me at such a time as this…and also to my church because we dedicated 2 whole weeks worth of sermons on this very subject 2 weeks after the Spirit was speaking to my heart… And I recently learned that Steven Curtis Chapman came on to K-Love and said that God has been speaking to his heart lately about this subject as well… I can’t believe that this is by chance, so join me for this revelation journey into the Furious Love of God!
Well I have for the past couple of months been overwhelmed over the Love of God… God’s love has enveloped me, it has consumed me, God’s love has torn me, has broken me, and has left me lost…. You say Lost? Yes, Lost… The closer I get to the Love of my Abba, the more I realize, this world is not my home! I feel a great disconnect… We as Christ Followers, are like beggars at the mercy of God’s door…A few weeks back God gave me such a vivid picture during a date night with my wife that it caused me to break into tears in the middle of our dinner…
We were in Crown Center in Kansas City at an Italian restaurant, and there were these beautiful large windows surrounding us, with small panes of glass surrounded by a beautiful white frame around each window pane, with such an amazing view of a fountain outside, and a snowy ground! God all of a sudden gave me a revelation and I saw myself as a little child, a beggar, sweeping the sidewalk outside these beautiful windows of Heaven, and I found myself just staring inside the window panes at the feast being prepared at the table, my breath causing marks on the glass as I watched in utter awe…
Just looking at all the shiny silverware, stark white napkins, sparkling glasses glimmering in the light, everything meticulously placed to perfection! I knew this was the great feast God was preparing, and I just couldn’t help but watch….I imagined all the special guests He was going to have for the feast, and could see people with fine clothing, all getting ready to sit at this table.
After a few minutes, while I was still picking up soot like ash, body covered with black ash all over, I was a mess, and sweeping it up, my Abba approached and put out his hand, rising from my knees, I didn’t realize what He was doing, but after a moment I realized He was inviting me in, into his presence, and not only invited me in, but He had a place prepared for me, for ME! Oh the tears, just realizing this moment… He had a place for me not only at the table, but a special place at His side… He was preparing this great feast not for some rich guest, not for some senator, or congressman, He was preparing this feast for Me…a ragamuffin! It was then that I saw a clear picture of how much my Daddy LOVES me with a FURIOUS Love beyond all measure….
Because of the work of the Cross, I have a place at the table… Jesus came to call the broken, the messed up, the inconsistent, outcasts of society, drunkards, and the like…Jesus sat at the table…with Me…Not only did he sit with our kind, but he went on and used us to do amazing things for God’s kingdom, even to today….God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong, and the foolish things to shame the wise….There are no super spiritual Christians…only broken ones… Isn’t God Amazing…He is astounding! He is beautiful! 🙂
I will never really understand it, it still brings me to tears to this day at different times recalling how much my Abba loves me….Wow! Did you know that God longs to hear your voice each day, God longs to feel your embrace when you tell him simply…I Love You Daddy! I tell you, when you live each day with a reverent Love for God, and yield to the Holy Spirit, you will start seeing in a new light the awe and beauty of the sunset, of the lighting and thunder, of God’s beautiful creation! Your heart will cry “My Daddy made that!”
Like show and tell, how our kids show their classmates what their daddy does for a living, or what he made, and they are just grinning from ear to ear in pride boasting in their daddy! In closing, I ask you to see God with new glasses today, if you claim the word Christian, and you have surrendered your heart to God, accepted the forgiveness of your sins, knowing you are loved as you are and not as you should be, and are now resting in HIS grace and His FURIOUS Love, embrace HIM today, tell HIM you love Him! And spend some time away from all the stuff and junk of this world, and grab your kids and sit them on your lap and watch a sunset together and be in awe and tell them how amazing God is….be in awe….be amazed….at the FURIOUS Love of GOD!
After Thoughts: In a journal, write about how these thoughts above speak to your heart. Just sit silent in awe of God and His creation, and HIS great LOVE for you! It’s refreshing and a beautiful thing to do.
“Conversation with my daughter Abby on the swings…“ Dad: “Abby, see the sunset, isn’t it just amazing?!?” Abby: “Yah!” Dad: “Abby, do you know who made the sunset?” Abby: “God!”…after a long pause… “But NOT Jesus because he’s only a baby!” I couldn’t help but chuckle and picture God the father elbowing Jesus and just laughing… 🙂
I have to write an addendum to this, but around late 2015 I went to a Gaither Vocal Band concert at Raytown Baptist Church in Missouri with the family and Joyce and Lyle. Well, it was still around that time that God was just pouring daily his Agape at me, and bringing me to tears. Even in the McDonalds drive-thru God brought me to tears…. Story later! Anyhow, I was sitting and listening to the music and singing, and this song below came on, and it brought the story you just read SO MUCH to life that I just cried and sobbed so hard during this song….Just God re-confirming HIS FURIOUS LOVE, unstoppable, poured out on the cross for me! Anyway, I had to say that…
I woke up one morning and I was standing in the bathroom at the mirror shaving, and God’s spirit just took me over and outpoured this thought so clear, so concise that I could not deny it was what was to be written. Today’s thought is entitled “Jesus Paid it All” for one reason….Yes He did for you and me!
While I looked at myself in the mirror these words came out of my mouth propelled by God’s Spirit;
“My ONLY Son, who has been with me for eternity, I gave for you!”
I just broke into tears, and kept over and over, saying out loud, my only son, I just can’t imagine, I just can’t imagine, my ONLY child, and all that emotion from the thought just poured out of my soul in gratitude to my Abba, my Father in Heaven for Jesus! I cannot begin to even fathom what God the Father was feeling… I am sure many of you reading this have children of your own, and some like myself, had an only son at this time… It hit me hard the thought of sacrificing my ONLY son for people who spit in my face, knocked me to the ground, cursed at me, threw objects at me, wanting nothing but harm to come to me…..Yes…..these are the ones I am sacrificing my ONLY son to die for them… You talk about tough love, well this is tough love! This is a FURIOUS LOVE pouring from God the Father, embodied in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Mankind’s tendencies are not to show love when being spat upon, it is to defend, rebel, lash out in anger, and charge at our enemies! This is our true nature…..but we are man, He is GOD! As we spoke about in the beginning, imagine taking the greatest anger, and turning it inside out, and on the other side of that rage is the furious love of God! On one side is the WRATH of God for those not to be found written in the book of life, those who reject what Jesus did on the cross for you and I…But on the other side is just as furious, but a love that is unstoppable by man, and never ending by our own standards. Verses like Romans 8:38-39 and Ephesians 3:17-19 speak about how vast, how wide, how long and how high our Father’s love is for us, and how NOTHING can separate us from the Love of God found in Christ Jesus our Lord…. How amazing are those words, what great joy they bring!
So now we ask what is our response? Now we start putting the puzzle pieces together a bit. We understand that God loves you and me just as we are, and not as we should be…. Jesus died for you and me WHILE we were in sin, not waiting until we please him, or get better, or shape up our life…..WHILE we were sinners, Christ died for you and I! (Romans 5:8) So now we are standing here broken, fallen, failures in our own eyes…..and God says
“Finally, you have returned to me! Come, I will prepare a feast for you, my son, my daughter, you have come home! I have a seat at my table set just for you, waiting for your return to me! “
This is the story of the Prodigal Son returning. It wasn’t an actual story, it was a parable, a comparison, a picture Jesus was trying to draw us to show us what God the Father’s LOVE looks like from our perspective! We, the beggars at the door of God’s mercy looking in at the fine China set at the table….God says, this table is being set for you and I who are in Christ….the broken…the Lost…the weary, the outcasts, the troubled, the liars, the thieves, who surrender and give in to the FURIOUS Love of GOD! That is what it looks like to accept the work of Jesus on the Cross for you and I.
So we see that it is a lot simpler than you think…..Accept the work of the Cross (our Cross), realize Christ died for our sins, and only through Him can we have Eternal Life, say yes to Jesus, and then rest broken in the arms of our Abba (Daddy), Father God! By resting broken, we are accepting our weaknesses, our faults, our shortcomings, our failures, leaving them at the feet of Jesus knowing God loves me just as I am and not as I should be, because no one in this lifetime will ever be as they should be. Only now can you allow God to do a work in and through you! God will do the work in you, changing you, molding you from the inside out, making you more like Christ.
God does the work, all we must do is rest in His arms and trust Him. There will be many valleys we will go through, but all throughout, your life will be one testimony after another of the power of God in your life! And the most amazing part, as Deuteronomy 31:8 says,
“It is the Lord who goes before you, He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”
God has promised to walk with you, and He sent a counselor, the Holy Spirit to be with you throughout the journey. This is how we are to live, abiding in the Holy Spirit, in the leading of the Spirit…. We will talk more about the Holy Spirit next.
After Thoughts:
In your journal, write about if Jesus were standing before you today, what would He say to you….Would He come out as a judgmental God telling you of your wrongs, or that you have failed Him….. Or would he be overjoyed you are even here, spending time with Him, talking with Him, laughing with Him. Do you feel the wrath of God hanging over you, or the Loving arms of our Father in Heaven wrapped around you, wiping your tears away, and being overjoyed you are home….. Write those thoughts down for later…
“A Social Media video my wife posted of my daughter in the car…“ Abby : “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, because its right!”
……The simplicity of a child, could it really be that simple?
CHAPTER 3: A Little More Like JESUS…
God has been working through me a lot lately, and He has reminded me of one thing I quite often fail to recognize or pay attention to. Well, through my journey the one piece of scripture that kept coming alive was from the book of Luke Chapter 9, version 23…
“Then He (Jesus) said to them all, ‘if anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me….'”
Luke 9:23 (NIV)
Jesus in this verse is showing a picture of total surrender, daily total surrender. You see we have a tendency to hold on to Idols, things that we prop up above God and put first in our lives. In most cases these are selfish idols that come from the flesh and its desires, in most cases it could be willful sin just to name one. Now there are idols that disguise themselves as “Good Idols” like family, hobbies, even our children… You say, family, children, those aren’t Idols, are they? Well yes, God calls us to take care of our family, our spouse, our children… Yet, we are to always put God first in our lives, then our Spouse, then our Children… God First!
Long ago, I was talking with my fiance, who is now my wife of nearly eleven years, and I said something that shook me to my core… I said, you know what if Jesus takes us home before we ever get married, will I know you in Heaven, will we be together? It sounds like a perfectly valid question to wonder, right? But after I got off the phone I broke into tears because I realized in saying that I put my (soon to be spouse) above God and it scared me…
So the answer is yes, even as a believer your family CAN be an Idol. In the end we want to die to self, surrender our hearts to God, prioritize so our relationship with Christ is FIRST in our life, then our spouse, then our children, then the rest. Remember, we can’t do all the rest of this life without JESUS as a part of it all, so God first. He wants to join you in all the rest, invite Him in to your daily walk! We want to become MORE like JESUS each and every day! John the Baptist says it best exalting Christ…
He must increase, but I must decrease. He who comes from above is above all; He who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes from Heaven is above all.
John 3 30 – 31 (NIV)
After Thoughts: In a journal, write about how these thoughts above speak to your heart. Pray to God to search your heart and reveal any idols especially sin in your life that are keeping you from your relationship with Him. Surrender those things, and your entire self to Jesus today. Invite the Holy Spirit to fill you this day, do this daily! Ask the Spirit to be on the throne of your heart so you may live for God today. Make this a daily practice in your life as God’s Word shows us in Ephesians 5:18 – 20…
18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit,19 speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord,20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 5: 18 – 20 (NIV)
If you have yet to make a decision to invite Jesus into your life to be your Savior and Lord of your life, this is not yet possible without first making Jesus part of your life forever. Visit ‘The Road Less Traveled’ to learn more about Jesus and consider inviting Him into your heart.
I leave you with this music video by Zach Williams, I pray it speaks to your Spirit as it did mine… God Bless!
Just before a time of discipleship together with a couple guys from my church, God planted a seed in the hearts of these two men, a burden for Fathers to disciple their young children, and share Jesus with them. Together they began talking about this, but was not yet sure of how to begin. Well, it turned out God was already at work in this!
I heard from a ministry contact at CRU one day earlier, that there was a man named Virgil, a 77 year old man in CRU who had a huge passion for equipping Father’s to disciple their kids one-on-one and share Jesus with them regularly. God brought us together to begin a work! God put a burden of reaching more than 3000 fathers in the Islands of Dominica via Mission trips that Virgil and a team did and continue to do today, reaching a population of over 70,000 on these Islands!
During this time, Virgil shared this vision to bring this to Kansas City, and to our church and communities around us as well as other areas he is working in. Well, “God was at work…”, I went to our discipleship meeting that night and told Richard and Phoenix about this contact through CRU and this vision of Fathers discipling their young children, and sharing Jesus with them. They both looked at me in utter surprise, and as we have come accustomed in our Discipleship group (Sent 6:7 Pursue), God blows us away with answered prayer over and over and over week-by-week, and its a beautiful relationship we have with our Lord and heavenly father! Richard and Phoenix shared with me that they have been talking about this exact thing the last few days! God orchestrated and masterminded this effort long in advance and prepared the harvest for us to walk right into!
Virgil who at the time I thought was local to Kansas City, because much of CRU City is in Kansas City. He asked if we could meet the following week at Crossroads Christian Church in Shawnee (My church home). I of course checked with Richard and Phoenix, and said YES! Virgil arrived for a 7pm meeting that night at our church. Come to find out, Virgil lives in MINNESOTA! He drove all that way that morning from Minnesota, just to meet with us three… I was humbled, and honored when I realized this…
I knew God put us four together to begin something amazing that God was already at work doing! After our meeting, and vision casting, and pouring our hearts out to God to lead and guide us in this, Fathers 3-10 Project came to life once more in Kansas City, in a town called Shawnee Kansas. So without further ado, let’s begin this newfound journey…
This idea of equipping Fathers to learn how to have one-on-one discipleship time with their kids on a regular basis for years to come, and how important and impacting that is. It seems that God has placed a natural desire in a child for the attention of their father. It also seems that they have a natural trust in what their father does and tells them.
Initially, Phoenix, Richard and I were asked these three simple yet very profound questions…
Although your child is young now, do you realize they will exist forever and ever? Have you ever thought about that?
If your child will exist forever and ever, it seems you have a great responsibility for their future. Does this seem reasonable to you?
I have some material that could help lead your child to live forever and ever with Christ, would this interest you?
These three profound questions spoke so deeply to all of our hearts. We as believers in Jesus, know we are created by God in His image. We also know we will live forever and ever for eternity. But we also know that according to the bible, because of sin, we are separated from God for eternity by default.
“16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”
John 3:16 – 18
So, based on the Bible alone…I know Jesus because someone shared Jesus with me at the age of 21 years old, and I invited Him into my life to be my Lord, my Savior, and because of Jesus and His work on the cross, I will spend eternity with Him, not only that, but my relationship with God the Father, which was broken because of sin, is now RESTORED! To learn more about beginning a relationship with Jesus visit ‘The Road Less Traveled’.
So now, question number two above, if my child will live forever and ever like me, then YES most certainly I have a GREAT responsibility to disciple them and share Jesus with them, and help them establish a relationship with Jesus Christ…and continue growing in Him! If I didn’t know my purpose in life before, then I have just been given a BIG one…my kids eternity! I don’t want them spending eternity separated from God, wow by no means!
So the first two questions are obvious to me now, not only obvious but of a paramount concern! So the third question, if there are materials and help available to show me how to disciple my children in a creative and fun way, would I be interested?
Do you want to answer the call that God is calling you to? Let’s allow God to turn the hearts of our children to you and I as Fathers…Before it’s too late. You see what is happening with our youth today, they are desperate to have the attention of their father who loves them so much, and desires to show them how to have an amazing relationship for life with their father, and restore our relationship with God the Father…the way God intended it to be from the beginning!
To learn more about Fathers 3-10, and to take the next steps to spend one-on-one intentional time with your kids, click the link Fathers310.Christocentricliving.org to learn more. Our time is limited, we only have so many breathes with our kids when they are young, make each moment count.
And remember, Fathers, if you never called on the name of the Lord to be saved and enter into a relationship with Jesus that is the first thing we will help you through, to have assurance of your Salvation in Christ. You can join one of our Pursue Discipleship groups, like Richard and Phoenix and I have done, and learn about and begin a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Richard, Phoenix and I started doing the devotional shown above, and other materials with our kids, and continue to do this regularly with them. There are over 18 of these 60-day devotionals. And the time commitment is FIVE minutes only each day with each child. But it’s five minutes of time that will benefit for eternity!
One of the key components of spending this one-on-one time with each of your children, is we write EVERYTHING down in front of them, so they know we care about every single word they say, and you can keep it forever as a journal! I want to share one story with my youngest, Andrew who was Saved when he was 4 years old, now 7 years old. But I continue to help him grow in our Father-Son relationship, and in Jesus daily, again the most important thing you can do for your kids, a gift to last eternity.
Daddy: How would you explain that God existed forever like a circle, without beginning or end for eternity? Andrew understood the question as ‘How would I explain God to someone?’
Andrew:
“I would get a bible, and people would say ‘Who is God?'”
“You tell them God is our heavenly father”.
“Jesus died for us, when you sin it hurts his heart!”
“Then they will ask “What is sin?” Its when you hurt people and it hurts his heart!”
“There’s a lot of people in heaven, Jesus gives us eternal life!”
In closing:
This is one example of an encounter you can begin having with your young children ages 3-10, or even 3-12 years old. And, if a child can explain the ABC’s of “Salvation”, and learn to grow up in the Lord, be encouraged we will help you to do the same as well! Remember, God is already at work…will you join Him?
Chapter 5: What does It mean to ‘Come as you are’?
This is a story of a personal encounter I had with God, and a man I met a few years ago. One evening, I was at work in our Data Center in Kansas City on an Autumn day. I had worked a very long day, and my day wasn’t getting shorter nor over any time soon. It was a night of Awana for my kids, who I always took them to Red Bridge Baptist Church regularly every week. I would then go eat, or sit in the parking lot, watch a movie, read, just hang out for a couple hours before picking them back up.
This night, I was exhausted! I had spoken to my Father-In-Law, and he agreed to take the kids to Awana for me, so I can keep working. Well, it was after 5pm and God spoke up in depths of my spirit, and told me to “Get Up, and get your kids, and take them to Awana tonight!”. This is a pattern in my life, I have learned when God says “Get up and go…” I say “Okay…and I go!”. So I jumped up, booked out of the Data Center (15 minute walk to car exhausted).
Fast forwarding, I got home, picked up the kids, and we went to Red Bridge Baptist Church. I dropped them off, and I then parked in a full parking lot of cars and my window was only open about 3 inches, because it was cold. I opened my laptop, and began to login to do some continued work, to finalize this crisis I had gone through that day. Then God……
All I heard through the three inch crack was a voice of a man who said…
“What does it mean to come as you are?”
I immediately felt the power of the Holy Spirit pour over me, and I knew why I was here tonight, what God wanted me to do for such a time as this… I slapped my laptop shut next to me, and dedicated this time to talk with this man. I first rolled down my window, and just said, well to come as you are means you don’t have to get it or have it all together…Jesus says to come to Him JUST as you are with all the baggage, all the junk, and that we can lay it down at His feet!
I got out of the car, and this man said through tears, that “he’s not from here, he lives way over in Kansas City MO. But that as he was driving, God told him to pull into this church and park right here. He then prompted him to get out and approach me…”
I then asked him first if he had ever accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior (Calling on the name of the Lord), and he responded “he has been thinking about it but not yet.” I then asked him if he had ever heard the Gospel shared with him. He said “No”. I then began sharing the Gospel from the beginning of time in the Garden, where sin entered the world, the fall of man, God’s plan for Salvation, the hope of Christ, and ultimately in the end asked him if he was ready to call on the name of the Lord and be saved! His response was, “Yes….” through many tears.
I then explained that there is no magic prayer, that its simply a conversation with God… I walked him through the starting of it…
Acknowledge we have sinned and are in need of Jesus our Savior
Believe that Jesus died for him taking away his sins, and rose again three days later.
Confessing to Him, and inviting Jesus to be Lord of his life and to walk by faith all the days of his life.
Through much tears, this man went to town talking to God, and that night became a believer in Christ…
I then encouraged him to find a bible believing church, and get surrounded by other believers to encourage and help him grow in Christ. He said he knew of “New Life City Church” in Kansas City, that he had been there and lives not far, which is funny because I met so many people through “Changing the Face of Evangelism” training previously called “City Leadership Experience”. So it was great that God kept bringing people over to this church I was connected to through CRU City ministry.
To this day, it brings me to tears this encounter God used me to talk with this man. I did absolutely nothing, God did everything! I was simply the vessel that God chose to use that night, to help this man come into the fold, and all of Heaven celebrated when this one man repented and was saved!
These encounters we have with God are milestones along the path of life. They are rocks that we pile up along the pathway of life, so we can look back on them and remember what God did that day through through us. God wants to use you and I, and through these encounters with our Heavenly Father, like Moses in the cleft of the rock as the glory of the LORD passed over, we can’t help but be changed by these encounters…
Bringing this to a close, for my children, and others that may be reading this one day… I say, live and walk in the Spirit…Don’t be drunk on wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit! (Eph 5 :18). Jesus says in John 15:1-4…
15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
John 15: 1 – 4
Bearing fruit is not something in our humanity that we can do. The fruits of the Spirit is Joy, Peace, Patience, Goodness, Kindness, Gentleness, and Self-Control, against such things there is no law! This is because we can only bear such fruit if we are filled with the Holy Spirit daily, and walking in the Spirit with spiritual eyes to see and understand the things of God! Only when you are filled with the Spirit, can you produce such fruit as above. This fruit is only produced by the Holy Spirit within you. So, I say again…Walk in the Spirit daily….
15 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. 18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit,
Ephesians 5: 15 – 18
This principle is called “Spiritual Breathing…” It simply means as you go about your day and something happens that causes you to sin, something in the flesh, you can immediately confess it to God, ask God for help to make a better choice, thank Jesus for dying on the cross paying for that sin, that is called (Exhaling).
(Inhaling) is simply taking in God’s grace that He gives you, and then asking God to fill you with His Holy Spirit, so you can walk in the Spirit. Because again, this is the only way to stay connected to the vine (John 15), otherwise we become like those branches that are of no use, and are thrown into the fire… This is called “Keeping in step with the Spirit”. Jesus in his earthly ministry always prayed and kept in step with the Holy Spirit, and thanked his Father for everything.
Not only will this principle give you life and your joy be made complete, but great adventures await those who are not spiritually blind, but always watching where God is at work, because its all about our relationship with Him…He wants us to join Him in the work he set out for us as believers.
After Thoughts:
Let’s say you want to buy your child a new bike or play house for Christmas, one they have been so excited about seeing it in the store all year long! You go to the store and buy it…
Now you have a couple of options, Toy stores, for a few dollars more will build it for you, and all you need to do is drive around back and pick it up when ready! Sounds easy, right? The other option is pick up the huge box of pieces and parts and throw it in your trunk and wrap it up that way!
Which is better? Which way would give your child the best experience? Well like us as parents or fathers, Daddy knows best… Let’s see how God would handle this…
Your child would open that new wrapped bike or play house pre-built, and run and play with it as soon as they give you the big hug! But then, its kind of over, unless you play with them with it? It would be so much more fun if our kids spent quality time with their Dad, building the bike or playhouse, and seeing it come to life little by little, until it was completed! Now, not only do they have something to play with, but they have so many memories of the time spent building a relationship with their Father, and us with our Son or daughter. Notice how parenting so much can parallel our relationship with God (its by design!)
God prefers to give us things in pieces…never the entire picture…Our Heavenly Father wants us to take time and spend quality time with Him, go through the fun times, difficult times, plain old crazy times, times of laughter, times of crying, times of growing… But in the end, you will be CHANGED and more like Jesus, and less like ourselves!
This process of “Sanctification” is how we live our life every day under the Lord’s leading. Enjoy the times, enjoy the milestones, looking back, and seeing and documenting what God has done and is doing! It’s fun, its hard, and its a beautiful thing!
