It’s official.  Florida has won us over.  OJ was already a big fan, with great memories from his childhood.  I, on the other hand, had one frigid spring break experience during college, in which the white beaches felt more arctic than exotic, and I was generally cold, tired, and appalled that the houses had been painted with nail polish.  (In Chicago, we generally don’t mix purples and pinks into our Benjamin Moore, unless you live in the ghetto, where, if you can afford paint, you let everybody know it.)

Anyway, the record book has been rewritten:  beautiful.  Wow,  We were far enough south to enjoy sunny beaches, but still northen enough to enjoy sweet southern accents and spanish moss hanging off old oak trees.

Anyway, we highly recommend Palm Coast, a coastal town about 40 min. south of St. Augustine, America’s oldest city.  It was odd to visit that city and see a fortress and walled city gate, right out of Old Europe.  I wonder how long it took for the explorers to figure out that old world methods would fail them in the New World.  Kind of funny to imagine this tiny little embattlement built on the edge of the enormity of what they’d discovered, trying to hold it, like trying to hold a sleeping bear by its toenail.  I imagine the British telling the Spaniards, “Hey, you guys keep that fortress.  We’ll take the rest!”

Transition periods:  the time it takes to figure out the Old World methods aren’t working, and looking for the New.  Having eyes to see the enormity of what’s in front of you.  Being able to balance the advancing and the subduing, conquest and dominion.  Hmmm…I hope we never get caught guarding the little fort when there’s a whole continent to explore.

OJ and I are sure that we’ve only just begun to grasp the enormity of what’s been given to us in the New Covanent, accessed through believing the Gospel.  We can afford to give everything away, move quickly at the Word of the Lord, speak boldly about our children’s futures, preach HOPE recklessly, and walk weak as we are with complete confidence.  The Prince of Peace is ruling.

In our last post, we were traveling through the hinterlands on our way to South Carolina, and we posted a list of things we need and things we already have.  Well, take the vacation off the “need” list and onto the “have” list!  Thank you for praying!  Really, God is ridiculously good.  He is also very jealous (Ex. 34:14).  The other day in the car, I prayed, “Father, magnify yourself with my life.”  The kids didn’t know this word and started firing questions.  It was fun, and made me clarify out loud what I meant.  It ended up something like this… “Lord, cause people who are blind because their faith is so small to see God show up big.  Use our lives to do this.”

I believe He’s jealous for this.  Even in little things.  The Bible says “All provision comes from Him…” and He’s been teaching us to bring our needs so under His control that He gets credit for the provision.  This often involves uncomfortable and conspicuous waiting periods and jumping off proverbial cliffs.  We often fail to get the picture, and waste our time.  For instance, we spent hours and hours searching for the right vacation spot, seeking something affordable, etc.  But there were some appointments he had for us in SC, and once those were done, He released the most amazing, affordable sweet opportunity just a few hours away near St. Augustine.  The owners said the people in it had suddenly decided to leave early, opening it up just for us…

So here we are, having a great time.  Note the palm trees and the shining sun…

OK, it's actually a beach towel that's shining...

At the moment, it’s raining…don’t worry…we’ve had a couple days of sunshine and McDowells really can’t handle very much at a time.  I burnt slightly the other day just eating lunch at Chick-fil-a’s outdoor seating.  Mmmm…it was worth it.

Switching topics…who’s the church?  We are.  Here’s us, having “church” on the couch this morning.  OJ was helping the kids while I listened to this sermon with Duncan and Patricia, OJ’s parents.  We sang along with the online worship leader and then discussed his haircut.  D & P were generally of the opinion that all the musicians needed haircuts, and OJ and I countered that we had been studying the issue particularly in this young man’s case for the last few years, and really thought his current choice was a good one.  These are things you can do with the vacationing church, freely and in great love.  Also, you can go to church without showering, as I did.

Pat, Duncan, and Suz

They were with us this weekend, helping us to corral the kiddos on the beach, and being generally awesome, generous, and loving.  And helping us to drink loads of coffee.  We walked about, some even carrying a mug in each hand.  McDowells hate to run out of coffee.  We, in turn, for their generosity and love, ministered to them from the scripture, where Paul says, “we do not cease to pray for you and ask that you would finally realize that it’s about time that you would settle down and just do yardwork.  We pray that contentment in TV watching and bridge clubs would abound, that you, being filled with all Denny’s Breakfast Specials, would prepare yourself for Sunday services by pressing your clothes into great smoothness during the rest of the week.  And may the God of all provision give you a roomy RV, allowing you to roam reasonable distances from home.”  Oops.  Wrong bible.

No, here’s what it actually says

“…we ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;¹⁰ that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; ¹¹ strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; ¹² giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.”  Col. 1:9b-12

The enemy constantly seeks to disqualify us from our inheritance, using whatever means he can.  Age, gender, marital status, busyness…you name it.  As we pray for people, we find that almost every willing follower of Jesus is attacked by some lie of disqualification, reasons that they cannot be fruitful, increasing in the knowledge of God rather than declining, and strengthened with His power for transformation.  Oftentimes, the enemy uses the voices of those around us to disqualify us.  There’s always a reason the enemy gives not to believe and obey, if not a hundred.  Often these lies revolve around us having failed to qualify ourselves, or even having disqualified ourselves.  Don’t we have very short memories! No man has EVER qualified himself, but through the blood of His Son Jesus Christ the “Father…has qualified us…”  He has done it, and so it cannot be undone, but by unbelief and disobedience.  If we believe the message that he qualifies sinners with His blood, then we have a message to preach, because, we’ve found, sinners are in good supply.  :)

Before Pat and Duncan left, we took a trip to the park.  After lunch, Ariel (our little evangelist) started a conversation with another family.  We all began talking and throwing around their basketball, and before long, OJ had engaged the couple in a conversation about God.  Pat and I engaged the kids, and told them about Jesus’ love while we got ours into the car.  A few minutes later, OJ and Duncan returned to tell us that right there on the basketball court, the couple had prayed to make Jesus their Lord.  We’ll reconnect with them to pray for their marriage this week.

They were so hungry!  There are so many hungry people…they are EVERYWHERE!  For so many years OJ and I have lived under some false perceptions, but we’re so excited to throw them off!  Here, I’ll share them before signing off…

1) “That was revival back then…oh, isn’t revival wonderful…let’s pray for revival…someday there will be revival.”  (The truth is that revival is EVERY day in the Lord)

2) “This is just such hard ground.  The soil is not fertile.”  We became increasingly suspicious when we started to realize that almost all Christians (including ourselves) believed that the soil around them was “hard” and “infertile.”  (The truth is that the ground is ALWAYS hard if you are filled with unbelief.)

Now, there’s some grain of truth in both of these concepts, but the lifeless paradigms that have been built around them desperately need to be torn down.  There’s more to say about our ongoing journey out of these false paradigms, but suffice it to say, we discovered that the problem was with our unbelief, not that of the people around us!  More later!  PRAISE THE LORD FOR TWO SOULS WHO HEARD THE GOSPEL WITH JOY TODAY!!!  Love to you.

Dear Friends,

We survived the great move of 2010.  Actually, we conquered the great move of 2010, halfway.  We’re packed up and stored and on our way South in formation.  The Sienna’s taking on the lonely road with aggression, Dad at the wheel as offensive lineman, Mom making snack passes from the front to the wide receiver (Judah), Ariel in the slot, and Samuel as the chubbiest tight-end receiver ever to toddle onto the field.  Much of the QB’s time is spent trying to get the rookie to sleep.

Go to Sleep Samuel

What do we do with all our energy?

The field, currently, is not worth more than a passing mention.  Illinois in March.  If you’ve never heard about this legendary season…be glad.  Flooded fields, naked trees, brown-green stubble.  Flaaaaaaaaat…  But we’ll find Kentucky soon, and at least our brown-green stubble will be rolling.

He's Driving, I'm Blogging!

We’re headed ultimately for South Carolina, so Grandma and Grandpa McDowell can kiss the grandbabies, and to work on building a network of partners.  There’s a lot to be done.  Here’s what we need:

• A new house back in KC central to ministry purposes
• A name for the ministry, and to register the 501C3
• Monthly Partners
• A location for the next freedom class
• A place to stay for a some family rest and relaxation in the next couple weeks (hopefully in the Sunshine state)

It may seem like an imposing list (especially the house part), but a quick look at what we already have puts it in perspective:

• THE GOSPEL!  Even in the midst of the packing/moving, OJ and I have fun Gospel stories from nearly every day this week.  Makes every day like a wild adventure!  I will share more stories in the next few days, now that there’s time for writing again.
• A full harvest field!  “Lift up your eyes…the harvest is white…”
• AM Radio in Centralia, IL  YES!!! (“Highway to the danger zo-one…”)
• Friends and family who share the vision and can’t wait to go to work with us in KC the day we return!
• Stories of transformation from the last few months, weeks, and even days that are still leaving us shaking our heads…”Did that really happen???”   I’ll share more of these, too…
• Monthly partners and friends who have already given with such passion and joy that we ARE FILLED WITH GRATITUDE AND FAITH, many from just the last few months of ministry!!!  The Lord is pouring out hope and transformation, and people are jumping on board!
• The most beautiful kiddos in the world (except for yours, of course).
• Incredible friends and family that we literally cannot wait to get back to, as much as we love a chance to get away for some rest.

So rejoice with us over what the Lord has done!  We’re gonna dance and sing, hope you are, too.

And pray with us for provision, especially monthly support and a house to move into when we return to KC in a couple weeks.

Love,

Suz for us

P.S.  One of the beautiful young ladies from the high school ministry told me a couple of days ago that she was making plans for college and a lucrative career so that she could support our ministry and others like it.  :)  OH, that’s some sweet fruit.

“Dude, you got witchcraft all over you!”

It was an unconventional way to intro the gospel, but it was true.  I couldn’t leave the store without telling the incredibly talented and forceful young manager a little bit about his reality, about the waste he was headed into, about the salvation Jesus Christ offers…

I have been asking the Lord for “woman at the well” encounters.  We’ve experienced many years of ministering to Christians through prophetic revelation, people who have a grid for watching you close your eyes and ask for revelation, who will wait patiently and hunger for the word of the Lord.  This method doesn’t exactly work on the fly at McDonalds, the park, or the well, for instance.  So we’ve been crying out, “Lord, increase our revelation to be able to speak to the lost…as a sign…”  He’s answering, of course.  The greatest obstacle is really the fear of man.

So I went for it with this guy.  OJ’s helping me to walk in boldness, always about 10 years ahead of the crowd in this.  Anyway, this guy gave me the worst possible response, “What are you talking about?”  But I was already knee deep, so I just blundered ahead, looking at him with the eyes of my heart…

“Have you ever read the Bible?”

“Yeah.”

“You know some of the things that God hates…drinking of blood, sacrificing animals to demons, crazy sexual immorality…?  Those things are direct partnership with the devil (who’s real) and God (who’s real) hates them, because they’re front door invitation to the demonic to come in, hang out, and destroy your life.  Well, whether you’re doing those things yourself, or watching others do it in your movies and music, it’s still witchcraft.”

BINGO.  We were tracking.  “I like that stuff.”

“I know.  You’re numb to it, because you’re so angry.  And you have your reasons.  But do you know what it’s doing to you?”  I jumped out there again, telling him some things he experiences because of the witchcraft in his life.  And then I told him a little of his original design, how God had made him, with incredible drive for excellence and competition.  He was an amazing young man, who will face increasing frustration and bondage and eventually death or find freedom in Jesus Christ. It’s really that simple, and that urgent.

By the end, he was shaking my hand, and asking if I’d come talk to him some more.  That young man has a destiny, and a hallmark card’s not gonna get him there.  The more we cry out for the salvation of this generation, and look at the gospel preaching that was done in the New Testament by Jesus and those He commissioned, the more we reach the conclusion that wimpy gospel preaching and indifference go together.  The more we love these young people, the more forcefully we find ourselves speaking truth.  I think often of George Whitefield preaching to the coal miners with tears flowing down his face.  If the preacher doesn’t recognize or care that the lost are lost, how will they?

The Cross means:

“It is finished.”  Abuse, pain, death, and hell…all of my worst fears, have completely and forever been taken for me by Him, my Lamb, Jesus Christ.  He stepped in and experienced the worst horrors so that every horror can be cast upon Him and off of me.

I am dead to my past, my sin, my selfishness, my debt, my guilt, my anguish, my hopelessness, my despair, my confusion, my shame, my self-hatred, my own efforts, my condemnation, and even the pain and abuse of others.

All of it, all the hell of living in a world that is overseen by the “prince of the power of the air” and the “prince of this age,” is dead to me.

That abuse victim, that neglected child, that rejection, that shame, that orphan  who was identified by failure, inadequacy, and worthlessness, that defiled person who no one wanted, riddled with sorrow and without hope, that person is crucified with Christ.  It is finished.

The Resurrection means:

I am raised with Him in the newness of life.  Immediately, upon believing and confessing, I become…not pretend to become, but actually become, a NEW CREATION.  I become beautiful, able, confident, alive.

I pass immediately into eternity, lifted out of the dirt of this world.  I am given, without earning it, every credential, every attribute of love, all the resources of mercy, unending hope, glory and power, eternal riches, and every resource in Christ.

If yesterday I was a liar, a murderer, and an abuser, in Christ, today, I receive the CHARACTER of Jesus Christ.  I am not a liar, a murderer, or an abuser, I am hidden in Christ, with God, my rags swallowed up by robes of righteousness, finally free to be pure, lovely, real, and fearless.

Through faith I blot out my old identity with the glory of His kindness, mercy, and truth.  If I rejoice in the crucifixion of my worthlessness, I can have value.  If I agree to the crucifixion of my prideful offense, I can have tenderness and trust again.  If I will cooperate with the crucifixion of my fear of man and insecurity, I can REJOICE without constraint RIGHT NOW in the GLORY HE HAS GIVEN ME AS A CHILD OF GOD.  I AM A JOINT HEIR WITH CHRIST OF ALL RIGHTEOUSNESS, no longer a slave to sin, but joyfully and willingly a slave of righteousness!

NOW, TODAY, FOR ALL ETERNITY!

The Gospel means:

That this glory is available at any moment, in any place, at any stage of life, to ANY LIVING PERSON WHO WILL HEAR AND BELIEVE.  It means there is no pain, abuse, or torment to overcome those of us who are in Christ.  We need never hang our heads and wonder what can be done.

The estranged brother in Christ our heart aches for, we can confess to be reconciled even before it manifests because He Himself is our peace, having broken down the middle wall of separation!  The prodigal child, the wayward spouse…the greatest possible pains, we live knowing that in an instant of receptivity, all pain will be more than swallowed up by glory and redemption, every sin forgotten in the bottom of the sea, all restored abundantly!

The moment that we receive we become ambassadors of reconciliation, overflowing with good news…our only pain being those who are slow to hear and believe.  We walk sure-footed among the hungry, desolate, abused, and downtrodden with the news of the King who has ALREADY COME, saying “ONLY BELIEVE, and you will BE SAVED!!!  You can crucify that life of pain and torment on the cross with Jesus and receive a whole new life, if only you will believe!”

This is the Gospel that we preach!  This is the life that we live!  This is why we are filled with joy, even in momentary light afflictions!

¹⁴ But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom^[a] the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.  Gal. 6:14

¹⁹ For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, ²⁰ and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. ²¹ And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled ²² in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight— ²³ if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.  Col 1: 19-23

For those of you looking for the teachings, they are now being posted under the “Teaching” tab up at the top right hand side of the home page!  Sorry for the confusion!

You can get the freedom book from City Central Missions Base here or through the link on the right of the home page, underneath the archives.  When the page opens, you will see several products.  The Freedom book is entitled Freedom Class Manual, and we recommend getting the Freedom Resource Manual, as well.  If you buy them as eBooks, you can get them both for the price of one hard copy.

We love hearing from you!  Thank you for letting us know what God is doing.  We could not be more excited!

(Letter to the Lost)

You matter.

You matter because there is a case pending against you that all of history hinges on.  You, God’s masterpiece, knit together out of a secret DNA code that only He could write and science is still beginning to try to decipher.  Too much beauty is contained in that code to describe.  A thousand pictures could not capture how it makes those who love you feel when you laugh.  Too much wisdom is written in those helices for our most brilliant minds to comprehend.  Like the wisdom that teaches the feet of the illiterate to balance their weight perfectly on symmetrical legs.  Too much joy is written into those strands to be expressed; even your parents didn’t come close on the day of your birth.  The only appropriate celebration for your grandeur is of heavenly proportions…but that does hang in the balance.

Because your DNA was hijacked and your beauty marred and the wisdom despised and the joy stifled.  Because you and I have participated in the greatest treachery of all time.  The One who designed, crafted, and rejoiced over you for Love has been denied His heart’s desire:  full fellowship with you.  Your soul’s DNA no longer reads, “Lover of God with all heart, soul, mind and strength.”  It’s been changed to read, “Seeker of self for pleasure, glorification, identity, and source.”  The design is so grossly perverted that you have to be told…TO BE TOLD IN WORDS…to love the most beautiful, perfect Lover conceivable.  To love Love Himself.  You and I, we must be commanded to love Love (for which we were made).  To see Light (for which our eyes were formed).  To do Justice (which is HIs only possible course).  To cherish Mercy, by which we continue to breathe from moment to moment.

So because He must, He commands it.  And still, after the command, written long form in 66 books over hundreds of years, shouted by prophets who were thrown in jail and sawn in half, and then embodied in His own Son made flesh, still after all…still the Word is neglected and disbelieved, the prophets despised, and the Love, Light, the Son of God, made into a pendant.  Crucified by religion daily, His righteousness undesired.  And here you are in the now of history, with thousands of years of defiance of men before you and the return of the King to come, and everything is hinging on how you will respond.

You matter.  The case against you is unchangeable, insurmountable, terrifying.  You were made for greatness, one way or the other.  And you have been pursued in the sea of humanity for rescue by the Son of Man and the Son of God.  One and the same, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.  Have you heard His name?  Then you have been pursued eternally and offered the world’s only hope.  Have you seen His book?  Then He has cried out to you in a loud voice.  Have you been told of His death?  Then you have been confronted with the most astounding injustice the greatest imagination could ever conceive of, the greatest story ever told, and the greatest act of Love any man or spirit could attempt.  The immortal God dying slowly at the hands of the rebels, the underlings, the traitors.  The created killing Creator.  The Omnipotent nailed up by weaklings.  Voluntarily.

And YOU are the one at the center of the story.  The ONE for whom Christ died.  You matter.  You matter.  You could not matter more.  There is no more certain guarantee of your worth than this, Jesus Christ hanging on the cross outside the camp, bloody beyond recognition.  You matter.  If there is one question on which you dare not waste another moment it is the question of whether you are loved and important.  Do you see Him there on the Cross?  You matter.

No, the question is not whether you are loved, or whether you are significant.  You must disbelieve the Cross and reject history to remain asking what has been so resoundingly answered for all time.  No, the question is if you esteem Him.  Whether you see Him as worthwhile and significant.  Him, the King of Glory.  All Creation is groaning for His return, but He holds off, offering you another day and another breath to engage all the angels of heaven in celebration.  Will you repent?  Will you turn?  Will you bow and surrender to love, or defy not only the Righteous Judge, but your own Advocate and Redeemer, in the end standing only in agreement with your accuser and abuser, who calls you worthless and tutors you how to be so?  For a few moments the world will stand with you as you stand with them, but it is a vapor.  And so you will face the One before whose face all of heaven and earth flees away on your own.  And He will open the Lamb’s Book of Life, to see if your name is in it.

All the universities in the world, temples of idolatry, and drunken stupors of men will never change the eternal truth:  There’s a book.  He died to put your name in it.  You matter.  Will you believe, confess, and repent?  He will pay all debts, allowing you to die and be reborn.  To be a new creation, to have new life, eternal life in full fellowship with Him.  He will save you not only from the eternal penalty of sin, but from the life of slavery to sin you now live.  Sin will no longer be your master; if only you will submit to Him, the kindest and most preferred of all Masters, Lord of all!  Bowing to His Lordship will make you free!

When you do, friend and brother, finally the celebration of your worth is released in the heavenlies, all the angels rejoicing at the redemption of the Precious Prodigal.  What joy, on earth and in heaven, the Father’s will done.  Restored relationship with you.  You matter.

⁸ But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”^[a](that is, the word of faith which we preach): ⁹ that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.  Rom. 10:8-10

And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ ¹⁰In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”  Luke 15:9-10

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. ²¹God made him who had no sin to be sin^[a] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.  2 Cor. 5:18-21

This is one that I wrote earlier this week, but didn’t feel it was the right one for that day.  So here it is, tacked to the end.  God bless you and your precious little ones!!!

If parenting ever leaves you feeling completely overwhelmed, at your wit’s end, and befuddled, then that’s really, really good.  No, really it is.  Because you know something that billions of people in the world don’t, the ONE THING that you need to know.  You know the Name on which to call.  In the middle of the battering of our bodies by various bugs and illnesses that we called “Christmas 2009,” when it was Judah’s turn to get the stomach flu, something wonderful happened.  It was the middle of the night, and Judah woke up sick.  As I’ve mentioned before, he usually wants Daddy in the night, so I was laying in my bed, as OJ led him in his misery over to the toilet to vomit.  I listened, exhausted from my own sickness.  I heard him groaning over the toilet, and then he cried, “God, help me.  God, help me.”  In my stupor, my heart smiled.  “Thank you, Jesus.  Thank God.  We’re doing something right, baby.  He knows to call on the name of the Lord.”  If we mess up every day from here on out, miss some major theological point of education, if he falls in with the wrong crowd at Sunday school…I’m joking.  These things aren’t going to happen.  But if they did, Judah knows in his three year old heart, somewhere in the core of him, that God is real, and He is strong to save.  I smiled my way back to sleep. Judah’s sickness barely lasted a couple more hours.  God is real, Judah, and He answers.

He answers!  This is why I want to talk a little more about faith versus fear, because we have everything we need when we believe Him.  We live in lack, not because we don’t have what we need for parenting our kiddos, but because we lack faith.  We so easily can believe that there’s a way to “do it right” that we are going to miss, when we are missing the ONE who IS the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  We are like bumper cars running into each other, “Scuse me, where’s the organic aisle…have you heard about the dangers of aluminum foil…don’t let that kid ride a bike without a helmet!”  Fear is the parent’s constant companion in this world.  Seriously, the baby industry is milking us for millions with all our fear over how we can possibly handle this…baby?!?  AAAAAugh!!!!!  I need a several thousands of dollars of stuff that will be useless to me in a couple of months!!!  But we…children of God…we are not of this world.  We are the ones who were set free from fear by the Cross of Jesus Christ.

For example, the enemy loves to bring the fear that our children won’t follow the Lord.  This thought, concept, and report comes straight from the pit of hell.  It is NEVER the Holy Spirit whispering to you that your children may not follow the Lord.  The violence I have in my heart against this is something you probably don’t ever want to see unleashed.  Anything of this nature brings a, “Get thee behind me, Satan!!!!!!!” response from me.  Do I worry about it?  Absolutely not ever. I don’t entertain that vile, tormenting fear even for an instant.  Why?  Because GOD HAS NOT GIVEN ME A SPIRIT OF FEAR, but of POWER, LOVE, AND SOUND MIND.  2 Tim. 1:7.  There have been days that OJ and I were at our wits’ end, on the floor, fasting and praying for our child’s breakthrough.  There may be more of those to come.  But the fact that OJ and Suz do not know what to do does not really mean that much, after all, when Almighty God is FOR us.  In those moments, there is all-out desperation.  But no despair.  A holy cry to the Lord, saying, “You must intervene!!  I will not let go until You answer!!!”  This is a response of desperate faith, and it is pleasing to the Lord.  God answers.

We get deceived by fear because we don’t understand the ways of God.  Read this Scripture:

³⁶ And the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation grumble against him by bringing up a bad report about the land— ³⁷the men who brought up a bad report of the land— died by plague before the LORD. ³⁸Of those men who went to spy out the land, only Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive. Numbers 14:36-38

Remember how I said the other day that fear was a big jerk that we should kick out of our houses?  I apologize, because I did not use strong enough language.  If you don’t know the story referenced in the scripture above, it refers to when the Lord brought the Israelites to the land that He had promised them.  At the point where they pause on the border of the promised land, the people want to know what is ahead of them.  The promised land, filled with milk and honey, is also filled with inhabitants.  But the Lord told them it would be theirs.  So they send a dozen spies to bring back the report.

Side note:  this is the very spot we find so many believers in.  They are sitting on the border of their Biblical promises (for love, joy, peace, abundant life, fruitfulness, etc.), shocked and surprised that the land is already inhabited.  They have beginnings of faith, but only enough for uninhabited land that they need not fight for.  They succumb to unbelief and fear.  “Because I have not yet experienced my portion of the land, the promises of God may not be true.”  Nonsense.  The Lord told them (and tells us) specifically that we will have all that we place our feet on (Deut. 11:23,24).  We are not given the promise of battle-free land, but of victory when we fight.  This is so important for parenting!!!!

So the spies return and 10 of the 12 report to the people on the size of the giants.  They spread fear and hesitation, and the people shrink back from God’s commands to TAKE THE LAND because of their unbelief.  Only two spies speak with faith.  So how does God feel about the fearful spies?  He kills them with a plague.  Because of their evil report of fear and unbelief, a generation disobeyed God and died in the wilderness.  When all the promises of God were there, waiting for them to enjoy, all the good things, they believed the evil report of fear and refused to fight, sealing their own purposeless deaths.  Note:  God didn’t kill the unbelieving generation, He just let them come to a natural demise in mediocrity, insignificance, and purposelessness.  But he did kill the messengers of fear.

As believing parents, we must understand that a spirit of fear is at all times bringing us a bad report, an EVIL report.  At all times, the enemy is seeking to intimidate, frighten, and cause us to hesitate to battle the inhabitants of our promised land (whatever your inhabitants are:  depression, anxiety, self-pity, rebellion, whatever) and shrink back, leaving them in place.  We become intimidated, thinking that if the promises of God were true, there would be no battle.  WE have not understood.  We must be utterly unwilling to hear the bad report of fear.  We must hear the report of the Lord over our children. When we don’t understand the ways of God, we think that if He had willed for people to have something, they would have it.  We don’t understand that God did will for the people to have the land, but because of fear and unbelief they didn’t take it.  We don’t understand the POWER of fear.  Fear, when given the chance to spread its report, will take the outcome and make it match its predictions.  Some people say it is a “self-fulfilling prophecy.”

Let me simplify it this way.  All day, every day, we will be receiving two kinds of reports.  One will be bad, and one will be good.  The bad one will usually be circumstancial, factual, and reasonable (until we get really bound by fear, and it can even take us into the realm of the irrational).  The good one will be based on Scripture and possibly nothing else.  Like the Israelites, we will act in accordance with the report that we choose.  Either faith or fear.  Which one we choose will determine the outcome.  See, we can think the way out of fear is to know what’s going to happen.  We don’t understand that what’s going to happen is very much dependent on whether or not we believe the report of fear.  God has holy rage against the message of fear, and eventually will “send a plague,” if you will, on the spirit of fear that torments you.  But you and I must choose whether we will be of the generation that allows our inheritance to be stolen and dies in the wilderness, or of the generation that believes the Lord and takes the good land.

So what is the report of the Lord over our children?  Is it that they are rebellious, angry, contentious, fearful, sorrowful, and whiny, and God just doesn’t know WHAT to do with them?  Or is that just us, little humans, predictably coming to the end of ourselves, as will happen at least twice a week for the rest of our lives?  Does the Lord not at all times know exactly what to do to reach my child?  Will we stop, listen to His report, and act on what He says?  Will we live simply, with child-like faith, asking consistently, “What do I do, FAther?  GOD, HELP ME!”  Because He WILL answer.  Our fearful hearts seek a formula that is fool-proof, a way of doing it that will guarantee results.  But the door to all God’s wonderful parenting methods is FAITH… that HE IS, and that He rewards those who seek Him.  God loves to give rich revelation of truths, but even more He loves a constancy of dependence, so that there’s nothing we count on more than HIM and HIS WORD.

If you really want to hurt someone, every villian knows that the best thing to do is to go after their kids.  This is the story of the human race, and its been Satan’s idea from the beginning.  In his rebellion against God, Satan didn’t go blow out the stars, or paint graffitti on the Milky Way, or, as far as I know, turn all the bunny rabbits into scorpions.  In his hatred of God, he plotted against Him by seducing His kids into the greatest betrayal in the history of the universe.  The beautiful earth had been created for them, and they to rule it, and instead Adam and Eve believed God’s mortal enemy and conspired with him to turn over their paradisical domain to his vile, horrific, abusive tyranny.  And humankind has been enslaved ever since.

We should be wise to know that this core element of Satan’s strategy has not changed.  He wants to destroy God’s kids; he wants to destroy our kids.  Please look really, really hard with me at this Scripture:

Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. ² You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. ³ All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else. ⁴ But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, ⁵ that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)…  Eph. 2:1-5 (emphasis mine)

I look at a verse like this, and I sometimes I wonder if the American church has been more informed by Norman Rockwell and Leave it to Beaver than by the Scriptures.  When did we start to think the world was a good place filled with nice people?  How did we get so confused?

God is sovereign over all, He is the king of all kings, He has all the power, but did you know that He’s not the only one in who’s “at work” down here?  There’s a usurper, a false king, an imposter working through people.  There is always a spirit at work in hearts, and for those who are disobedient, the Bible says it is the devil.  That might shock some Christians to consider, but the Bible’s clear.  When a person gets saved, it is not from the NFL viewership unto church attendance, it is real!  They are actually getting saved from enslavement to sin and obedience to the devil!  Another scripture calls him “the god of this age” who has “blinded the minds of unbelievers,” 2 Cor. 4:4.  This, my friends, is a Biblical worldview.  If one finds it distasteful, or over the top, or overly radical, they are going to be friends with the world.  They will be filled with confusion and unclear on the mission.  This person, we’ll call him “Rambo” for fun, will forget he’s supposed to be rescuing POW’s, end up chatting it up with the camp wardens, drinking their liquor and playing their games, mocking the inmates here and there, and sending his children to the local Viet Cong nursery school.

Bible says over and again in some of the strongest language in the New Testament:

John 15:19
If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.

1 John 2:15
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

1 John 3:1
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

⁴ You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.  James 4:4

(emphases mine)

You don’t fit in, I don’t fit in, God help us if we ever fit in.  This is what we’re preparing our little ones for.  As we raise them to serve Jesus, we must realize that they will be hated by the world, not known by the world, and that the world is at enmity with their very best Friend, Jesus Christ.  At what age do you think a child can handle being hated, misunderstood, and rejected, and continue to thrive?  This is the age at which you should launch them out into the world.  At what age do you think a little one should take classes from someone who “obeys the devil” (just quoting scripture here)?  This is the age at which they should be offered up to spend the majority of their time under unbelieving teachers.  At what age should a child be expected to hang out all the time with peers who are at enmity with their friend Jesus, and still be loyal to Him?  What age were you before you were up for that?  This is not about fear.  Fear will not help us to be wise.  This is just about the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom.  Here is the Lord’s command to us as parents:

And these words which I am commanding you this day shall be [first] in your [own] minds and hearts; [then]

⁷You shall whet and sharpen them so as to make them penetrate, and teach and impress them diligently upon the [minds and] hearts of your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise up.  Deut. 6:6,7  (Amplified Bible)

This is not a confusing passage.  It places the responsibility on parents to FILL their child’s day with the words that God commands us.  God is not naive.  His first kids got taken in with a little piece of fruit and some fast talking.  How hard will parents battle when the serpent has been given the hearts of men to work through, and is the “god of this age”?  No more ‘Bible Class,” friends.  It’s “Bible Life.”  As I said yesterday, letting the Word of God come out of us all day long, like a river.  Don’t be afraid.  This does not require a seminary degree, just BELIEF, which is much more useful.  Jesus said, “Take heart, for I have overcome the world!” Jn. 16:33.  He has overcome it.  We will overcome it, too, if we don’t love it.

Two things to be clear on:

1. The church, school, or camp we attend is not going to answer to God for filling my child with the truth, I will.

2. I will not answer to God for a local church, school, or youth group, I will answer for my kids.

I hear people say things like, “What will happen if we abandon the public schools?”  Understand that there is no command in Scripture for you to fill the public schools with your kids, but there is a command to fill your kids with His Word.  By all means, be burdened for your local schools and the kids in them, but do not confuse that with the mandate of Deut. 6 to parents.  This confusion has devastated so many.

Deuteronomy 6 gives us permission to be intensely loyal to our children.  Out of love and and out of fear of the Lord.  Do nothing out of fear of man or any sort of fear.  If your church’s school is not good for your child, don’t send them there.  If Grandma’s house is not a healthy environment, limit the time.  If their little hearts are being hurt by some buddies that want to play a lot, intervene.  Reach out to the little buddies with love and truth, but remember that it’s your child that you will answer to God for.  In the kingdom, when you’re faithful with the little He gives you, He gives you more.  Be faithful with your kids, and He will give you other kids to pour out His mercy on, too.

Of course, we remember the mission we are raising our little “Rambos” for…it is, after all, to seek and save the lost.  Our intention isn’t to hide them from the world, but to establish them in righteousness so that they can effectively do the mission.  Raise evangelists!  Raise worshippers!  Raise lovers of God!  When they are exhibiting this steadfastly IN the home, they’ll be ready to exhibit it outside.  Don’t think that you light your candle by sticking it out in the darkness.  First, set it aflame.  Then it can shine in the darkness.

One more note:

There are so many tough parenting questions that we need the Lord to lead us in.  Which school do I send my child to?  What shows are okay to watch?  What music?  I used to believe in hard and fast rules on these things, but then I thought, how can we hold up a hard and fast rule that isn’t in Scripture?  Hmmm…

So I go back to Scripture for the “hard and fast rules.”

Proverbs 8:13
To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech.

If we hate evil, we don’t need a rule to tell us which movies are okay to watch.  We’ll hate not just four letter words and graphic nude scenes, we’ll hate perversion portrayed as normal, a doofus dad being disrespected, contention between siblings presented as comedy, boring marriage contrasted to exciting promiscuity, etc., etc., etc.  So much better to be sickened by what the world thinks is fun, and pass that on to your kids, than to have a strict rule based on the rating system.

If we believe that God said in Deut. 6 to “sharpen” the commands of God so as to make them “penetrate” when we “impress” them on our kids’ minds…wow.  We won’t hand them over to the world to impress their thinking onto our kids, whether it be through school, media, or peer influence.  We won’t seek a “fun” kids’ program where God is the flip side of a chocolate coin and they talk about “making God exciting” (only people who think God isn’t exciting talk like this),  we’ll seek out a place where He is adored and worshipped in holiness.  We won’t hope in Sunday morning to teach our kids about God, we’ll hope that Sunday morning can keep up with the fire in the home!!!  Woo-hoo!  Now that’s fun. 

BIG THANKS to my Mom, who’s been shouting, “Deuteronomy 6!” to as many parents as would listen for years now!  I’m with you, Mom.  Let’s RESCUE THE KIDS!!!

Okay, so here’s our job.  To take little people who are naturally inclined toward these:

9 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, ²¹ envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like…

And instead, turn them toward these:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, self-control.   from Gal 5:19-22

Did we THINK we could somehow accomplish this on our own?  OH YEAH, sure, to convert our little sinners, to save and deliver them, to free them from bondage to sin and produce beautiful eternal fruit…it’s going to take Super Parents, you know, the ones who are better, smarter, and more spiritual than you!

NO, IT’S NOT!!!  IT’S GOING TO TAKE THE MIRACULOUS POWER OF GOD!  Really, how much power does it take to accomplish this sort of feat?  It is astounding!  I can’t even convince them to eat vegetables, who can convince them that the dictates of their hearts are misleading and wicked, and they should turn to that which does not come naturally:  righteousness?  Who has this sort of authority?  How quickly can I get them to come over and help me out?

Drum role, please:  All the authority and power you need for this job is already IN YOUR HOUSE waiting to help you out.  It’s on your shelf, baby!  Here’s what it says:

Psalm 19:7
The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul;The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple…

2 Timothy 3:16
Every Scripture is God-breathed (given by His inspiration) and profitable for instruction, for reproof and conviction of sin, for correction of error and discipline in obedience, [and] for training in righteousness (in holy living, in conformity to God’s will in thought, purpose, and action)...  (amplified Bible)

The Word of God, spoken in faith, will convert the soul.  The Word of God, spoken in faith, will instruct, reprove, correct, convict, discipline, and train.

You gotta be kidding, right.  That’s it?  Do I have to do a tap dance when I speak it?  Do I need a felt board, you ask?  Do I recite a verse a day at bedtime?  What’s the formula?

YOU JUST HAVE TO BELIEVE IT.  For real, it’s that simple.  Faith comes by hearing (Rom. 10:17), it is something that is imparted.  If you BELIEVE that “the grass withers and the flowers fall,
but the word of our God stands forever, ” (Is. 40:8), then everything is different.  For example, If you BELIEVE that God cannot lie (Tit. 1:2), commands us not to lie (Lev. 19:11), and is at enmity with Satan, the father of lies (Jn. 8:44) , then

A)  You will not ever lie.

B)  When your little one tells a lie, instead of chuckling, or scolding, or saying, “Now don’t you tell me a fib!”  you will open your mouth, and the everlasting authority of Scripture, which could never be attained by eloquence, persuasive ability, or force of will or personality, will come out.  You will, in that moment, if you have BELIEVED the Scripture (not religiously assented to believing it, but actually believing it) impart faith in the truths above to your child.  And your child will believe, too.

The gap between their HEARING the truth and OBEYING the truth is that rebellion referred to in earlier posts.  That is what we discipline for, knowing it is not a one-day battle.  In the midst of that discipline, we constantly offer them what God offers us through Jesus Christ, His own righteousness.  Instead of bringing shame to them and making the righteous godly standard (telling the truth, in the above example) a bar they have to attain, we call them a new name, like God did for us.  For instance, after a discipline for lying, I wipe my little guy’s tears, and prompt him to ask my forgiveness, and I draw him into my Word-based identity, as God did for me.  Doesn’t matter that he just totally lied, I use these words:  “We love the truth!  We hate lies, and we always speak the truth!”  I communicate to him that he’s with me, and we are God’s.  Communicate that we (choose to) think like God and act like God, because we’re His kids.  We never make our children wait to prove this to us; we tell them this is who they are.  That’s what God did for us in Christ.  A new identity, based on Jesus’ payment in full, not held in suspension until they get it right.

When Scripture we believe is running out of our mouths, then the river of God is in our homes, rushing our children towards righteousness.  The authority of God is there, right there, converting, convicting, and bearing fruit.

Fear will mess all this up.  Where faith says, “God is for me.  I will have the victory,” fear says, “It is up to me to make this happen.  I have to have the victory–NOW!!!”  And then control enters in.  Control uses force of volume or personality, physical strength, anger, or emotional manipulation to achieve what God wants us to trust His Spirit and His Word to accomplish.  Fear makes every situation the end of the world.  It fills us with pressure to make the child perform well in the exam, and every moment is an exam (especially if anyone else is watching).  It takes our focus off of training and removes our patience.  Faith looks to the end goal.  It knows that perfection from moment to moment is not the goal, a truly submitted heart is.  It trusts that God will come through.  That He has established my authority, and so He will by His Spirit enforce it.  The Word of God is enough for me.  I believe it.