PART IV

I am not free to share about the Winnipeg group so I will fast forward to my chat with Wayne. I went to his place and we began to talk about growth and so on. We began talking about problems people have and as we talked about these things I believe the Lord was revealing something. You see I view myself as a visionary. The problem many visionaries have is that they tend to see the positive and that positiveness is usually linked with how many people will come along (ie numbers). We will have 20 to 30 new groups in the next 2 years and will plan and just about do anything to make it happen. They do not see that people come with all sorts of problems. And they need patient people to come along side them. It takes time for many people to get from where they are to being where God can reveal to them the flower that is in them and the gift that God has put in them. But we visionaries want some measure of success and we want it now. I will call this group immature visionaries. These visionaries spend much of their time wondering why the groups they have established keep falling apart.
On my way home from Wayne's I began thinking about all of this. Then my thoughts turned to the Church of the Saviour in Washington D.C. I had first read about them in 1994. The book was called "The New Community" by Elizabeth O'Connor. Then I read "Call to Commitment" by the same author. I had to visit them and in 1996 I did just that. I was amazed at what was happening there. Well as an immature visionary I was astounded by what I could see. The dilapidated apartments they transformed into beautiful living quarters. Drug addicts being healed. Free health clinics. The depth that seemed to be a part of them and so on. My eyes beheld the fruit of their work and I was amazed. What my eyes could not see were the hours upon hours of commitment and sacrifice that went into the work the Lord gave them to do. I wonder if those of us who are immature visionaries understand the commitment and sacrifice it will take to establish new communities. End PART IV

PART III
On Saturday morning I was cleaning my tapes up and came across a tape by Clarence Jordan called "The Substance of Faith.". Clarence Jordan began a communal farm just after World War II. His outreach purpose was to hire black people to work on his farm so they could save up money to buy themselves a house. Now Clarence Jordan was educate in agriculture and had a masters degree in theology. He was 6' 4" and usually wore suspenders. He did not look the educated type. Anyway in his effort to love black people (in Georgia) in the 40's and 50's, their farm was shot at, barns set on fire and bombed.... bullets often whizzed by them in the kitchen. Their farm was boycotted by all the businesses in Americus Georgia. So the words I share from Jordan are not words coming from a man that closes himself in an office and reads about the faith of others. He experienced real persecution in the States. Jordan was also the man who came up with the idea for Habitat for Humanity. He died in 1968 just before the first house was completed. Here are a few quotes that has helped out in my fight against FEAR.

"Faith is not belief in spite of the evidence, but a life lived in scorn of the consequences."

"Faith is not a way of thinking but a way of acting."

"Faith is the activation of our aspirations. The life based on unseen realities."

"So long as the word remains theory to us and is not incarnated into deeds and living... you do not have faith. You may have good theology but you do not have faith."

"Fear is the polio of the soul that prevents us from walking by faith."

"The foundation of fear is self-preservation."

"Death is fear's greatest worry"

"But death has been ABOLISHED."

"Fear will be overactive in us so long as it sees anywhere on the horizon the specter of death."

"we must have the assurance of the abolishment of death."

"Faith lay in the power of the resurrection"

"They did not preach ethics, but the resurrection."

"Three aspects of the life of Jesus are...His life, his crucifixion and His resurrection."

"We must stop putting our emphasis on freedom..instead that we are bound slaves.. slaves of the living God.
End part III

PART II
I don't think that I can remember all these in chronological order. I'll start with Mark 4. The part where Jesus is sleeping on a boat. A storm arises and the disciples are afraid. They wake Jesus up and His words hit me like a ton of bricks, "Why are you so timid.... don't you have faith." Well a revelation happened in getting me to see that fear works against faith. As long as fear was operative then how could faith.... which is always connected to conviction and action..... flourish? If one is paralyzed by fear then faith shrivels up. Now there are some things that are out of our control... like healing, changing someone's heart and the like and the only thing there is to do is to come to Jesus and believe...... but even some of those who were healed in scripture acted..... they sought Jesus out. But there are things that are firmly in our control and if we let fear rule then nothing will happen. For example our next door neighbors have lived there for about 2 or 3 years and we haven't said boo to each other. Well putting aside my fear I went over and had a chat with him for a half an hour.(this was about 4 days ago). Afterwards Lynn, my wife, brought over some rhubarb meringue pie. I also said that they could use our trampoline for their little guy anytime they wanted to. But if I continued to let fear control me it would not have happened.
Also Wayne, Lynn our children and myself are reading the book of Mark.... Well one of the things that comes out quite strong is the fact that throngs of people sought after Jesus. My thoughts are, how in the world could he keep up. Coupled with this is the same idea when Leighton Tebay (www.theheresy.com) posts "Escape from Christendom" on his blog. I scrolled down and my eyes fell on the fourth wilderness called the harvest. The question that was asked was, "But will I have the strength to keep on working among people with such great needs." This happened two nights ago shortly after I got in on Sunday night after my conversation with Wayne. Now tripled with that was an article I read from house2house magazine about someone's excitement about starting simple churches in their neighborhood. After being there for 5 years they have led only one family to the Lord and have started no other home groups. Then that person went on to tell how a couple of people in Spokane had a word from the Lord that revival was going to happen. Their question was "will the people of these cities be ready." And that was this person's question.
I wonder, when we pray for revival, do we know what we're asking? The truth is, if my neighbors did start coming to the Lord and home groups did start forming and multiplying on my street, my life would change. The usual routines would have to go. My thoughts and time and energy would have to be focused on a whole new group of people and a whole new set of challenges and opportunities. This is the crucial question remains "Do we really want this to happen...... end PART II

PART I
What do these things have in common? Mark 4: The book of Mark. The Church of the Saviour. Clarence Jordan. Escape from Christendom. An article called, "Are we ready for revival." Assinaboine Park in Winnipeg. A group from Winnipeg. Last night's chat with Wayne........ ANSWER: the leading of the Holy Spirit...... to teach me one small but significant point that is crucial to home groups and reaching out.
Three weeks ago today, which is Monday, May 12th, I went for one of those long walks in Assinaboine park in Winnipeg. I struggled with the Lord about how our group had been together for a year and a half and no one has joined us in our journey. It seemed very much as if the Lord led us out of the traditional church and had asked me to begin small buildingless churches or home groups...... but nothing was happening. As I was praying and thinking, I began thinking of different ways to make contact with people and basically plan different ways to let people know about these kinds of churches. Well my spirits really began to soar. The Lord was with me.
I came home and a few days later came across a verse that hit me like a ton of bricks. "I will arouse him in righteousness. And will make his way smooth. He will build my city and will let my exiles go free. Without any payment or reward." Well I knew the Lord had aroused me. I also was sensing that a hedge was being built around me concerning a certain sin. That strengthening has lasted three weeks thus far. The area of fear was also always in my face. Somehow that had to be dealt with. But how? Now remember this is all happening in the last three weeks. That is over the past three weeks there has been a deep sense that God is speaking to me. I know this because of an aura or a sensing. My reading and circumstances are revealing deeper things. And I am understanding that it is purely a gift. This ends part I