"It is not the strength of one's faith that saves him or her but faith in a strong Saviour"
I read this quote this morning and it struck a thought in me - do I believe in a small God or a big God? Do I believe in a God who can raise the dead, part the sea and create the universe, or do I believe in a God who can heal a cold, cure a migraine and speak encouragement to my heart?
Would I rather have deep conviction in a small God (a God who limits Himself to works of great importance, magnitude and historical prominence) or a weak, but sincere, conviction in a big God (a God who is deeply involved and actively bringing about the miraculous on a daily basis within every sphere of His creation).
So as I sit in the Prayer Room I am meditating on the size of my God. Not the actual ability of God, but rather the size of my acknowledgment of His influence and activity. I'm quite certain that I function in a small God reality. If I'm honest, I don't have a lot of faith that God even cares about the running nose of the person beside me, because if I did I would be (at at least should be) moved with His compassion to administrate His healing to them.
Either I believe that God is lacking in compassion, or I am lacking in my scope of His compassion - and I'm pretty sure He is not the one lacking!!
So those are my thoughts this morning...
Jon
PS: We have started moving into our new apartment (1 bedroom!!) and will most likely post a bunch of pictures next week.
Tuesday, 29 September 2009
Monday, 28 September 2009
The Great Intercessor
This morning I was pacing in the prayer room and I was reminded of a line from a song that Rhonda has been singing the past week - it is about Jesus being the great intercessor who never fails to intercede for us. As I meditated on that line for a few moments suddenly I was impacted by an incredible reality...
The word says that the prayer of a righteous man is heard. It also says that we have been hidden with Christ in the heavenly places, and that Christ has become our righteousness.
With Jesus being my righteousness I stand before the Father perfectly righteous (hallelujah!). None of my offenses stand before Him. I am righteous and therefore I can ask with confidence, knowing that what I ask for will be granted by the Father!
Suddenly I felt faith, manifested as confidence, rise up within me and I began to start asking the Father for things. It was awesome to know that He was there giving His divine YES to everything that I asked, and why?, because I am righteous before Him.
So know today that the Lord is going to grant you power in your words to proclaim the good news - freedom for those in bondage to sin, power over sickness and power on the preaching of the word of God for the winning of souls. Why? Because I asked the Father to release it in southern manitoba (sorry Yvonne!) and He will do it just as I asked as you (and I) move out into action, which is our demonstration of faith, that we take Him at His word.
So be blessed to move out in confidence today, there is power available to you today to do the works of Christ, namely the heal the sick, cast out demons and proclaim the favour of the Lord.
Have a fun day!
Jon
The word says that the prayer of a righteous man is heard. It also says that we have been hidden with Christ in the heavenly places, and that Christ has become our righteousness.
With Jesus being my righteousness I stand before the Father perfectly righteous (hallelujah!). None of my offenses stand before Him. I am righteous and therefore I can ask with confidence, knowing that what I ask for will be granted by the Father!
Suddenly I felt faith, manifested as confidence, rise up within me and I began to start asking the Father for things. It was awesome to know that He was there giving His divine YES to everything that I asked, and why?, because I am righteous before Him.
So know today that the Lord is going to grant you power in your words to proclaim the good news - freedom for those in bondage to sin, power over sickness and power on the preaching of the word of God for the winning of souls. Why? Because I asked the Father to release it in southern manitoba (sorry Yvonne!) and He will do it just as I asked as you (and I) move out into action, which is our demonstration of faith, that we take Him at His word.
So be blessed to move out in confidence today, there is power available to you today to do the works of Christ, namely the heal the sick, cast out demons and proclaim the favour of the Lord.
Have a fun day!
Jon
Friday, 25 September 2009
Onions anyone?
So yesterday Jon's making our favorite meal for supper and yells out in frustration...
"I can't make supper because we don't have any onions"
Emma looks at us horrified and says...
"Does that mean we're poor?"
After Jon and I laughed hysterically we tried to explain to her that we were far from poor. Even if we were out of food we still have so much more than many in the rest of the world.
Unfortunately I think we'll have to revisit this conversation a few times to get it to hit home.
On asking her what would be so wrong with "being poor" she says "well, then I can't buy stuff" and I ask "like what kind of stuff" and she says "well like new toys and things". Well then I say "we don't really have a lot of toys here and you still have lots of fun..." and she says "Yeah, but we wouldn't be able to buy it IF I wanted it."
By the way, in case you are wondering, we borrowed an onion from an upstairs neighbor, Jon made a wonderful supper and we are currently "not poor". However who knows what can happen tomorrow, we could run ouf of ground beef....
Rhonda
"I can't make supper because we don't have any onions"
Emma looks at us horrified and says...
"Does that mean we're poor?"
After Jon and I laughed hysterically we tried to explain to her that we were far from poor. Even if we were out of food we still have so much more than many in the rest of the world.
Unfortunately I think we'll have to revisit this conversation a few times to get it to hit home.
On asking her what would be so wrong with "being poor" she says "well, then I can't buy stuff" and I ask "like what kind of stuff" and she says "well like new toys and things". Well then I say "we don't really have a lot of toys here and you still have lots of fun..." and she says "Yeah, but we wouldn't be able to buy it IF I wanted it."
By the way, in case you are wondering, we borrowed an onion from an upstairs neighbor, Jon made a wonderful supper and we are currently "not poor". However who knows what can happen tomorrow, we could run ouf of ground beef....
Rhonda
Just like mommy...
So the other day Emma was sharing how she wants to be healthy and do lots of excercise and be "skinny". Well to ensure she's working towards a healthy body image, we tried to discuss the concept of "metabolism".
So Jon starts lining up the french fries that we'd ate for supper to give a visual as to how it works with burning energy and extra food that turns into fat etc .
Our point was to let Emma know that "healthy" is more important than "skinny".
So discussing Jon's metabolism compared to mine led Emma to the horrified question...
"So will I be skinny like daddy or FAT like mommy?"
Don't you love her tact?
Rhonda
So Jon starts lining up the french fries that we'd ate for supper to give a visual as to how it works with burning energy and extra food that turns into fat etc .
Our point was to let Emma know that "healthy" is more important than "skinny".
So discussing Jon's metabolism compared to mine led Emma to the horrified question...
"So will I be skinny like daddy or FAT like mommy?"
Don't you love her tact?
Rhonda
Thursday, 24 September 2009
Me
So I had so many ideas of things I was going to blog about but now that I actually have a computer in front of me i'm drawing a blank.
We are going to be moving to a 1 bedroom apartment next tuesday. I went to look at it this afternoon and was pleasantly suprised how big it is. It actually seems bigger than our current apartment. What I loved too is that we have patio doors off of both the kitchen and the living room and there is SOOOO much light it has a totally different atmosphere.
The only problem I did notice was the amount of storage. Only one closet. Only one dresser. Now we have two closets and two dressers which seem fairly huge now that I think about it.
But I'm glad to know so then I can plan.
It's also only one building away from our old building with our buddies and our patio faces their building so much so that I can even watch the girls run over to their place.
We are still really enjoying our afternoon sessions. Today was fabulous, it was a woman (our first female speaker) and she shared so much personal stuff and was sooo funny it made me wish some of the other guys were less intellectual. Since it was super easy to learn from her.
I just spent an hour hanging out with a 19 year old girl from Steinbach. She is here with 4 other friends from Southland Church (this is Carla and Doug's church)
She was just sharing about all the questions she has about what to do with her life. School, pursue her sport to higher levels, quit her job. Crazy, made me so thankful I wasn't 19 again. But boy did I enjoy talking to her.
We've also met this fabulous couple from northern ireland who have contagious accents. The have 3 grown children and are the coolest couple on earth still. Lots of fun with them however we only really connect with people during our sessions or on our way to the prayer room.
Thank goodness we have met the young families we have as they have made our time here much more social. I'll post pictures of the girls new friends soon. Tomorrow I'm having little Selah over for 2 hours so her mom can get some much needed sleep. Selah is 3 as well and her mom is the one with the baby who is sick. I am planning on making playdoh with them all where they each make their own color. Funny enough my biggest problem is finding enough bowls for them to use. I plan on using 2 pots to improvise.
I'm looking forward to the weekend. Last sunday we just jumped in the van and drove downtown and meandered around sight seeing. We came across the National World War I museum and it was beautiful. We loved seeing all the architecture and the buildings. Really looking forward to sightseeing with my in-laws when they arrive Oct 4th. The girls are sooo excited and they don't even know that we are all going to a water park and staying at a hotel. My in-laws are quite wonderful people. I look forward to posting some fun pictures of this adventure.
Anyway, Jon brought the kids out to the coffee shop to bring me home for supper. My one hour of Rhonda time is officially over.
Miss you all. Rhonda
We are going to be moving to a 1 bedroom apartment next tuesday. I went to look at it this afternoon and was pleasantly suprised how big it is. It actually seems bigger than our current apartment. What I loved too is that we have patio doors off of both the kitchen and the living room and there is SOOOO much light it has a totally different atmosphere.
The only problem I did notice was the amount of storage. Only one closet. Only one dresser. Now we have two closets and two dressers which seem fairly huge now that I think about it.
But I'm glad to know so then I can plan.
It's also only one building away from our old building with our buddies and our patio faces their building so much so that I can even watch the girls run over to their place.
We are still really enjoying our afternoon sessions. Today was fabulous, it was a woman (our first female speaker) and she shared so much personal stuff and was sooo funny it made me wish some of the other guys were less intellectual. Since it was super easy to learn from her.
I just spent an hour hanging out with a 19 year old girl from Steinbach. She is here with 4 other friends from Southland Church (this is Carla and Doug's church)
She was just sharing about all the questions she has about what to do with her life. School, pursue her sport to higher levels, quit her job. Crazy, made me so thankful I wasn't 19 again. But boy did I enjoy talking to her.
We've also met this fabulous couple from northern ireland who have contagious accents. The have 3 grown children and are the coolest couple on earth still. Lots of fun with them however we only really connect with people during our sessions or on our way to the prayer room.
Thank goodness we have met the young families we have as they have made our time here much more social. I'll post pictures of the girls new friends soon. Tomorrow I'm having little Selah over for 2 hours so her mom can get some much needed sleep. Selah is 3 as well and her mom is the one with the baby who is sick. I am planning on making playdoh with them all where they each make their own color. Funny enough my biggest problem is finding enough bowls for them to use. I plan on using 2 pots to improvise.
I'm looking forward to the weekend. Last sunday we just jumped in the van and drove downtown and meandered around sight seeing. We came across the National World War I museum and it was beautiful. We loved seeing all the architecture and the buildings. Really looking forward to sightseeing with my in-laws when they arrive Oct 4th. The girls are sooo excited and they don't even know that we are all going to a water park and staying at a hotel. My in-laws are quite wonderful people. I look forward to posting some fun pictures of this adventure.
Anyway, Jon brought the kids out to the coffee shop to bring me home for supper. My one hour of Rhonda time is officially over.
Miss you all. Rhonda
CODE 30!!!
Heh guys, today's going to be a bit of a mondo Rhonda blog download again.
So we were at the "Price Chopper" grocery store doing our shop. We're in line to pay and overhead comes this fuzzy, urgent "code" repeated a few times. Well before we know it people are running and yelling and the small town canadian in me is taking cover with my kids because any second some crazy gun toting american is going to jump onto the checkout counter and start shooting his semi-automatic all around the store.
And then the undercover grocery store cop is running and you hear a scuffle and in the end it turns out some guy was trying to shoplift something.
Never did see the guy but while we were waiting for our stuff to get bagged I nonchalantly walked over to eavesdrop and snoop.
What I see is a backpack and the cops pull out the stuff and lay it on the table.
One package of diapers and two packages of pull-ups.
My heart sunk and I wanted to buy these for the person who felt they couldn't afford these and thus needed to steal them.
And then I can hear my mom's voice (HI MOM) saying "well he may have had the money and was just shoplifting irregardless"
I'd like to think the otherwise, but I'll never know.
So we walked away from our american grocery store experience thankful for little Altona and our very unexciting life there.
Rhonda
So we were at the "Price Chopper" grocery store doing our shop. We're in line to pay and overhead comes this fuzzy, urgent "code" repeated a few times. Well before we know it people are running and yelling and the small town canadian in me is taking cover with my kids because any second some crazy gun toting american is going to jump onto the checkout counter and start shooting his semi-automatic all around the store.
And then the undercover grocery store cop is running and you hear a scuffle and in the end it turns out some guy was trying to shoplift something.
Never did see the guy but while we were waiting for our stuff to get bagged I nonchalantly walked over to eavesdrop and snoop.
What I see is a backpack and the cops pull out the stuff and lay it on the table.
One package of diapers and two packages of pull-ups.
My heart sunk and I wanted to buy these for the person who felt they couldn't afford these and thus needed to steal them.
And then I can hear my mom's voice (HI MOM) saying "well he may have had the money and was just shoplifting irregardless"
I'd like to think the otherwise, but I'll never know.
So we walked away from our american grocery store experience thankful for little Altona and our very unexciting life there.
Rhonda
Wednesday, 23 September 2009
Waking Up Early Never Felt So Good
This morning I walked into the prayer room and they were singing this refrain:
"Won't you let me love you more
this is my deepest hearts desire
Won't you let me love you more
this is all that I require"
So picture this, it's 6 AM and I just started my day - so singing these words with any kind of conviction first thing in the morning kind of feels like a stretch. I mean, give me 20 minutes of "warm-up" or something so that I can get my heart to this place! None the less, I find a seat and decide to dive right in. I get through the chorus one time and suddenly the whole thing dawns on me - I'm not singing this to Jesus, He's singing it to me!
"Won't you let me love you more? This is My hearts desire!
Won't you let Me love you more! This is ALL that I require"
Suddenly my heart when from 0 - 60. I could feel the affections of Jesus and His desire for me all over. IT WAS AWESOME!!
It got me thinking about so many of the songs I sing at church like "Hungry", "More" or even my own song "I'd Do Anything" (songs that I file in my worship folder under "heart cry" songs). So often it is a struggle to try and return to the place of heart felt passion and longing as I sing them. There have been times when the words seem so real to me, but other times it feels almost hypocritical to be singing words like "I love you more than anything", or "I'm falling on my knees, offering all of me".
Today my heart was opened up to a totally different paradigm. I can turn the focus of these songs around and sing them as a confession of Christ's desire for me. Not only that, I can sing them with the knowledge that it will always be true and that He is feeling it deeply - singing it over me with His heart felt emotions!
Can you hear Jesus singing this over you in the garden of Gethsemane:
I'm falling on My knees, Offering all of Me
(insert your name here) You're all this heart is longing for!"
Or at the creation of the world, were Jesus spoke the word and the morning stars sang:
More than a word could ever say
More than a song could ever convey
I love you more than all of these things
(your name), I love you more!"
I don't know about you, but just reading that rocks my world BIG TIME!!! Now sing it out loud over yourself over and over again, IT'S AMAZING!!!!! (I can't put enough exclamation points behind this statement).
So be blessed today in the knowledge that Jesus is singing these words over you even now.
Jon
"Won't you let me love you more
this is my deepest hearts desire
Won't you let me love you more
this is all that I require"
So picture this, it's 6 AM and I just started my day - so singing these words with any kind of conviction first thing in the morning kind of feels like a stretch. I mean, give me 20 minutes of "warm-up" or something so that I can get my heart to this place! None the less, I find a seat and decide to dive right in. I get through the chorus one time and suddenly the whole thing dawns on me - I'm not singing this to Jesus, He's singing it to me!
"Won't you let me love you more? This is My hearts desire!
Won't you let Me love you more! This is ALL that I require"
Suddenly my heart when from 0 - 60. I could feel the affections of Jesus and His desire for me all over. IT WAS AWESOME!!
It got me thinking about so many of the songs I sing at church like "Hungry", "More" or even my own song "I'd Do Anything" (songs that I file in my worship folder under "heart cry" songs). So often it is a struggle to try and return to the place of heart felt passion and longing as I sing them. There have been times when the words seem so real to me, but other times it feels almost hypocritical to be singing words like "I love you more than anything", or "I'm falling on my knees, offering all of me".
Today my heart was opened up to a totally different paradigm. I can turn the focus of these songs around and sing them as a confession of Christ's desire for me. Not only that, I can sing them with the knowledge that it will always be true and that He is feeling it deeply - singing it over me with His heart felt emotions!
Can you hear Jesus singing this over you in the garden of Gethsemane:
I'm falling on My knees, Offering all of Me
(insert your name here) You're all this heart is longing for!"
Or at the creation of the world, were Jesus spoke the word and the morning stars sang:
More than a word could ever say
More than a song could ever convey
I love you more than all of these things
(your name), I love you more!"
I don't know about you, but just reading that rocks my world BIG TIME!!! Now sing it out loud over yourself over and over again, IT'S AMAZING!!!!! (I can't put enough exclamation points behind this statement).
So be blessed today in the knowledge that Jesus is singing these words over you even now.
Jon
Tuesday, 22 September 2009
Spending Eternity In Heaven Is Just Silly
Yesterday we were told an account about a guy who was taken up into heaven. He was taken on a tour by Jesus. Near the end of his vision, Jesus and him jumped into the river of life and Jesus proceeded to start a water fight.
At first I thought it was kind of fun, and then it got me thinking about the validity of his experience. I mean, that seems kind of silly for them to do that!
So this morning I was reading Revelation 4 and envisioning the throne room with it's sea of glass, lighting, thunder and never ending songs and I got to thinking again about Jesus playing in the river of life. Is He really that silly? Well this it was I concluded - heaven must be the silliest place you could possibly imagine!
It's hard to be silly when you are stressed out. I can always tell when I'm not stressed because my "voices" slowly start to come back. No, not the ones in my head! The foreign accents, cartoon characters and other weird personalities that seem to be trapped inside me emerge as the stress level subsides. They are one my stress metrics. If they are around, I'm not feeling stressed.
But there's more to silliness than stress. It's hard to be silly around people you don't feel comfortable with. There is a fear of rejection or at the very least being seen as immature or childish. So let's compare hindering factors to silliness and heaven:
Stress hinders silliness - Heaven has NO stress!
Shame hinders silliness - Heaven has NO shame!
Lack of joy hinders silliness - Heaven is PURE joy!
Rejection hinders silliness - Heaven is for the accepted!
The fear of breaking something hinders others silly activity - Nothing breaks in heaven!
Can you imagine this conversation in heaven
Parent: "You know son, it's all fun and games until someone looses and eye!"?
Child: "No problem! It'll grow back!!"
Heaven has no stress, no shame, no fear and nothing breaks. It was designed and build to reflect the nature and character of God. So my conclusion is this - God's going to be a lot of fun and spending eternity in heaven is going to be silly (and I can't wait!)
Jon
At first I thought it was kind of fun, and then it got me thinking about the validity of his experience. I mean, that seems kind of silly for them to do that!
So this morning I was reading Revelation 4 and envisioning the throne room with it's sea of glass, lighting, thunder and never ending songs and I got to thinking again about Jesus playing in the river of life. Is He really that silly? Well this it was I concluded - heaven must be the silliest place you could possibly imagine!
It's hard to be silly when you are stressed out. I can always tell when I'm not stressed because my "voices" slowly start to come back. No, not the ones in my head! The foreign accents, cartoon characters and other weird personalities that seem to be trapped inside me emerge as the stress level subsides. They are one my stress metrics. If they are around, I'm not feeling stressed.
But there's more to silliness than stress. It's hard to be silly around people you don't feel comfortable with. There is a fear of rejection or at the very least being seen as immature or childish. So let's compare hindering factors to silliness and heaven:
Stress hinders silliness - Heaven has NO stress!
Shame hinders silliness - Heaven has NO shame!
Lack of joy hinders silliness - Heaven is PURE joy!
Rejection hinders silliness - Heaven is for the accepted!
The fear of breaking something hinders others silly activity - Nothing breaks in heaven!
Can you imagine this conversation in heaven
Parent: "You know son, it's all fun and games until someone looses and eye!"?
Child: "No problem! It'll grow back!!"
Heaven has no stress, no shame, no fear and nothing breaks. It was designed and build to reflect the nature and character of God. So my conclusion is this - God's going to be a lot of fun and spending eternity in heaven is going to be silly (and I can't wait!)
Jon
Monday, 21 September 2009
I Forgot My Journal!
So I got to the prayer room this morning and realized that I had left my journal on my bedside table. At first I thought that I could go the whole morning without writing anything down, but of course, as soon as Jon Thurlow starts playing it opens up a myriad of thoughts that need to written down or I will forget half of them. So I decided to use my laptop as my journal this morning, and seeing as it's as easy as "copy + paste" I thought I would share my journal entry on the blog this morning:
“No reservations, No walls
But just and open door in my heart to You
I want to give all that’s inside of my heart
I want to give all that’s inside of my heart to you” (Jon Thurlow)
“I want to give ALL that’s inside of my heart to You” - What a great truth! Jesus knows the depths of my heart, my sin, my struggle, my joy, my love and affection for Him. He knows it all, and He knows exactly what to do with each one.
He takes my sin and forgives it - throwing it into the sea of forgetfulness.
He takes my struggle - encouraging my with His gentle words, His strength and power
He takes my joy - savoring it as fruit grown by His Spirit, declaring that it is good
He takes my affection - delighting in the fragrance of my heart as a pleasing offering
He takes it all, and He takes it perfectly! Administering justice and mercy upon every piece of my heart with gentleness, kindness, love and delight because His heart is towards me. It is the beauty of this man that opens the door of my heart to trust Him. Tearing down every hinderence, every objection.
“I want to give ALL that’s inside of my heart, to You”
---
Every invitation of the Lord comes with the inherent promise that He will provide the means by which to attain that which He has called me to.
I have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Eph 1:3)
“Husband’s love your wives as Christ loved the church” is more than a noble idea - it is the reality that Christ sees for my life. He has called me to it, and therefore, has promised (assured) me that I will, through a life of obedience to His Spirit, come into maturity and take hold of it. Praise God!
---
The Father entrusted the dream of His heart to His Son, trusting in another to bring His dream into reality. I feel that the Lord is inviting me to enter into that same relationship - entrusting the dream of my heart to Rhonda. Not that I am to sit back and wait for her to do what I want her to do, but rather, to trust that I will go as she goes. As the Lord unlocks her heart, it will release mine to minister. Essentially, it is like giving her the keys to the gates, as she goes so will I go. She is to be the gatekeeper and I am going to have to trust that God will be faithful to bring His good word to completion in and through both of us. After all, He created both of us and the good works prepared in advance for us to do AND He brought us together in marriage.
Lord help me to trust that you will do everything you have planned, and that You will do it within the covenant of marriage that you have brought us into.
I can do EVERYTHING that God has asked me do WITHIN the life that He has given me. The blessings of life (marriage, children, family, job, body) are given by God and do not need to be discarded to attain relationship with God, they are the MEANS by which He wants to refine our devotion to Him.
----
So there you have it!
I'm on my back to to the apartment now to see how 'me ladies' (to be said with an Irish accent) are doing. I hope you all have a great day and would love to hear how things are in your area of the world.
Jon
“No reservations, No walls
But just and open door in my heart to You
I want to give all that’s inside of my heart
I want to give all that’s inside of my heart to you” (Jon Thurlow)
“I want to give ALL that’s inside of my heart to You” - What a great truth! Jesus knows the depths of my heart, my sin, my struggle, my joy, my love and affection for Him. He knows it all, and He knows exactly what to do with each one.
He takes my sin and forgives it - throwing it into the sea of forgetfulness.
He takes my struggle - encouraging my with His gentle words, His strength and power
He takes my joy - savoring it as fruit grown by His Spirit, declaring that it is good
He takes my affection - delighting in the fragrance of my heart as a pleasing offering
He takes it all, and He takes it perfectly! Administering justice and mercy upon every piece of my heart with gentleness, kindness, love and delight because His heart is towards me. It is the beauty of this man that opens the door of my heart to trust Him. Tearing down every hinderence, every objection.
“I want to give ALL that’s inside of my heart, to You”
---
Every invitation of the Lord comes with the inherent promise that He will provide the means by which to attain that which He has called me to.
I have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Eph 1:3)
“Husband’s love your wives as Christ loved the church” is more than a noble idea - it is the reality that Christ sees for my life. He has called me to it, and therefore, has promised (assured) me that I will, through a life of obedience to His Spirit, come into maturity and take hold of it. Praise God!
---
The Father entrusted the dream of His heart to His Son, trusting in another to bring His dream into reality. I feel that the Lord is inviting me to enter into that same relationship - entrusting the dream of my heart to Rhonda. Not that I am to sit back and wait for her to do what I want her to do, but rather, to trust that I will go as she goes. As the Lord unlocks her heart, it will release mine to minister. Essentially, it is like giving her the keys to the gates, as she goes so will I go. She is to be the gatekeeper and I am going to have to trust that God will be faithful to bring His good word to completion in and through both of us. After all, He created both of us and the good works prepared in advance for us to do AND He brought us together in marriage.
Lord help me to trust that you will do everything you have planned, and that You will do it within the covenant of marriage that you have brought us into.
I can do EVERYTHING that God has asked me do WITHIN the life that He has given me. The blessings of life (marriage, children, family, job, body) are given by God and do not need to be discarded to attain relationship with God, they are the MEANS by which He wants to refine our devotion to Him.
----
So there you have it!
I'm on my back to to the apartment now to see how 'me ladies' (to be said with an Irish accent) are doing. I hope you all have a great day and would love to hear how things are in your area of the world.
Jon
Sunday, 20 September 2009
My crazy kids
My girls have been making me laugh on a fairly regular basis.
Madison has this certain aversion to pooping on the potty. You can tell she is trying and she walks all bent over and funny but she adamantly refuses to go on the potty. (sometimes she does willingly when we remind her only babies poop in their diaper)
So the other day at the dinner table Madison was obviously trying to do her "business" and I leaned over to see if she had pooped yet.
Madison looked me straight in the eye, stood up straight and said passionately....
"LEAVE MY POOP ALONE"
What else can you do but laugh!!!
Then we are brought to sweet Katelyn. We were making brownies and since the girls were helping it's always a fairly messy endevour. So Katelyn was really into licking the spoons and wanting to taste as much batter as possible. She was given a little but in her desperate state she asked to lick the big spoon, the side of the bowl, the batter spilled on the side of the muffin cup. And as I said no to them all, in desperation she asked me...
"CAN I LICK YOUR FINGERS"
In case you were wondering I did say no.
Then Emma, my daughter.
We were at Target yesterday and perusing the little kids clothing section for cute stuff for our new nephew "Tayten". The girls over and over were picking up outfits and saying in a high falsetto voice "isn't this sooooo cute". They were having a blast. Then as we were waiting to go to the "shoe" section Emma says from the heart...
"I LOVE THIS STORE.....THERE ARE SO MANY CUTE KIDS CLOTHES AND STUFF....
I CAN HARDLY STAND IT....I LOVE SHOPPING!!!!"
Aaagh my daughter.
At which point Jon sighed deeply and shook his head painfully.
Good to know Nancy and mom that we have another one to add to our twice a year U.S. shopping trip!!!
Madison has this certain aversion to pooping on the potty. You can tell she is trying and she walks all bent over and funny but she adamantly refuses to go on the potty. (sometimes she does willingly when we remind her only babies poop in their diaper)
So the other day at the dinner table Madison was obviously trying to do her "business" and I leaned over to see if she had pooped yet.
Madison looked me straight in the eye, stood up straight and said passionately....
"LEAVE MY POOP ALONE"
What else can you do but laugh!!!
Then we are brought to sweet Katelyn. We were making brownies and since the girls were helping it's always a fairly messy endevour. So Katelyn was really into licking the spoons and wanting to taste as much batter as possible. She was given a little but in her desperate state she asked to lick the big spoon, the side of the bowl, the batter spilled on the side of the muffin cup. And as I said no to them all, in desperation she asked me...
"CAN I LICK YOUR FINGERS"
In case you were wondering I did say no.
Then Emma, my daughter.
We were at Target yesterday and perusing the little kids clothing section for cute stuff for our new nephew "Tayten". The girls over and over were picking up outfits and saying in a high falsetto voice "isn't this sooooo cute". They were having a blast. Then as we were waiting to go to the "shoe" section Emma says from the heart...
"I LOVE THIS STORE.....THERE ARE SO MANY CUTE KIDS CLOTHES AND STUFF....
I CAN HARDLY STAND IT....I LOVE SHOPPING!!!!"
Aaagh my daughter.
At which point Jon sighed deeply and shook his head painfully.
Good to know Nancy and mom that we have another one to add to our twice a year U.S. shopping trip!!!
Saturday, 19 September 2009
1,000,000,000 is a BIG Number!
This weekend IHOP-KC is celebrating it's 10 year anniversary. As part of that celebration, Mike Bickle is telling the prophetic history of how it all got started. Rhonda and I have heard many of the stories before but there have been several new ones that have been amazing to hear for the first time.
One of those stories was in regards to a guy by the name of Bob Jones. In the mid 70's Bob had a death experience and went to stand before the Lord. The Lord sent him back in order to walk beside a "youth movement" that God was going to raise up out of Kansas City.
We had heard much of this story before, including prophet words confirmed by snow, rain, unknown comets and the audible voice of the Lord (to name a few). This was all a great reminder for us as we heard these stories again, but there was part of Bob's original encounter with the Lord that I had never heard. I sat there listening to Bob, in his own words share how God told him that there was going to be a BILLION SOULS that would come into the kingdom at the end of the age through this movement!
I have heard Mike use that number in regards to the end-times and that there would be an incredible move of God in the area of evangelism, but I always took it as being an estimated figure - something that merely represented what might or could happen. I had know idea that this number was actually spoken out of the mouth of God to Bob in 1975! What's most amazing about this isn't that it is an actual number, but the fact that EVERYTHING Bob has prophesied about the movement has come to pass. He has been 100% accurate over the course of 30+ years. There are only a few things (that I know of) that Bob prophesied that have yet to be fulfilled, and one of them is the end-time harvest of 1,000,000,000 souls.
So it's got me thinking. If the Lord tells a guy that he's getting his life back so that he can tell a young pastor to start a "youth movement" based on night and day prayer and then the Lord confirms it with signs in the heavens (snow is spring, rain in the middle of a 3 month drought, a heavenly visitation and a comet in the night sky (to mention just a few)) - and ALL of them happen EXACTLY on the day and in the EXACT way that He spoke they would - how can I possibly sit in the midst of this God orchestrated ministry and not take the WHOLE word seriously? Can a guy talk with God and God only be 98% truthful?
I'm still wrestling with it, but not because I don't believe it could be possible, but because of it's ramifications on my life. If I believe God to be 100% truthful in this encounter, then my
children WILL SEE these 1,000,000,000 souls come into the kingdom in their lifetime. I could very easily see 1 BILLION souls come into the kingdom through a supernatural move of God within my lifetime. I don't think I'm wrestling with whether it could happen, but more so with the question "what kind of role do I want to have in this end-time move of God?". Am I OK with sitting back and waiting to see IF it really happens (at the risk of missing out on this great reward) or am I going to be like Noah and build for my family a place of salvation in the midst of God's outpouring? Do I want to WATCH God move, or move WITH God?
To be honest, I'd like to say that I'm going for it, but in reality, I'm still weighing the cost. What will it be like to live the rest of my days among friends and family (not to mention foe's) who will ridicule me on a regular basis with many of the same thoughts that you and I have been thinking over the past 60 seconds?
Even now I'm thinking to myself "why am I writing this?", "are you crazy to share this wrestle?"
All I can say is this: I'm glad I have another 2.5 months to sit before the Lord's counsel and sort this thing out further before I have to see most of you face to face.
At any rate, we love you all and are looking forward to seeing you all again in December.
Jon
One of those stories was in regards to a guy by the name of Bob Jones. In the mid 70's Bob had a death experience and went to stand before the Lord. The Lord sent him back in order to walk beside a "youth movement" that God was going to raise up out of Kansas City.
We had heard much of this story before, including prophet words confirmed by snow, rain, unknown comets and the audible voice of the Lord (to name a few). This was all a great reminder for us as we heard these stories again, but there was part of Bob's original encounter with the Lord that I had never heard. I sat there listening to Bob, in his own words share how God told him that there was going to be a BILLION SOULS that would come into the kingdom at the end of the age through this movement!
I have heard Mike use that number in regards to the end-times and that there would be an incredible move of God in the area of evangelism, but I always took it as being an estimated figure - something that merely represented what might or could happen. I had know idea that this number was actually spoken out of the mouth of God to Bob in 1975! What's most amazing about this isn't that it is an actual number, but the fact that EVERYTHING Bob has prophesied about the movement has come to pass. He has been 100% accurate over the course of 30+ years. There are only a few things (that I know of) that Bob prophesied that have yet to be fulfilled, and one of them is the end-time harvest of 1,000,000,000 souls.
So it's got me thinking. If the Lord tells a guy that he's getting his life back so that he can tell a young pastor to start a "youth movement" based on night and day prayer and then the Lord confirms it with signs in the heavens (snow is spring, rain in the middle of a 3 month drought, a heavenly visitation and a comet in the night sky (to mention just a few)) - and ALL of them happen EXACTLY on the day and in the EXACT way that He spoke they would - how can I possibly sit in the midst of this God orchestrated ministry and not take the WHOLE word seriously? Can a guy talk with God and God only be 98% truthful?
I'm still wrestling with it, but not because I don't believe it could be possible, but because of it's ramifications on my life. If I believe God to be 100% truthful in this encounter, then my
children WILL SEE these 1,000,000,000 souls come into the kingdom in their lifetime. I could very easily see 1 BILLION souls come into the kingdom through a supernatural move of God within my lifetime. I don't think I'm wrestling with whether it could happen, but more so with the question "what kind of role do I want to have in this end-time move of God?". Am I OK with sitting back and waiting to see IF it really happens (at the risk of missing out on this great reward) or am I going to be like Noah and build for my family a place of salvation in the midst of God's outpouring? Do I want to WATCH God move, or move WITH God?
To be honest, I'd like to say that I'm going for it, but in reality, I'm still weighing the cost. What will it be like to live the rest of my days among friends and family (not to mention foe's) who will ridicule me on a regular basis with many of the same thoughts that you and I have been thinking over the past 60 seconds?
Even now I'm thinking to myself "why am I writing this?", "are you crazy to share this wrestle?"
All I can say is this: I'm glad I have another 2.5 months to sit before the Lord's counsel and sort this thing out further before I have to see most of you face to face.
At any rate, we love you all and are looking forward to seeing you all again in December.
Jon
Testing Email Posting
I just figured out that we could add posts via email so this is a
test to see how well it works. (If it works then you will probably
see a lot more posts from both of us!)
test to see how well it works. (If it works then you will probably
see a lot more posts from both of us!)
Jon
Wednesday, 16 September 2009
Baby Lydia
Heh guys, just wanted to ask you to pray for some new friends of mine.
They are Jeff and Janelle. The live in the building next to us.
I ran into her and her newborn (4 weeks old) on the front step and got to talking. Her baby is teeny weeny and I noticed she had a feeding tube in her nose. I asked if she was a preemie and she said that they took her 4 weeks early because she had stopped growing. I didn't think anything of it until I talked to our other neighbor who shared that this little girl has a chromosomal anomaly called Trisonomy something (I haven't had a chance to research it on the internet)
Anyway, the life expectancy is 6-12 months. The little girl is 4 lbs. She has a 3 year old sister named Selah and this couple has moved to here to be close to the prayer room during this time.
Janelle's daily routine is to take Lydia into the prayer room from 8-10 a.m. to soak in the presence of the Lord and to receive prayer. I think this is beautiful.
It also makes me so thankful for healthy children. Again I am reminded how much I take this luxury for granted.
Please pray for this little family if you can
They are Jeff and Janelle. The live in the building next to us.
I ran into her and her newborn (4 weeks old) on the front step and got to talking. Her baby is teeny weeny and I noticed she had a feeding tube in her nose. I asked if she was a preemie and she said that they took her 4 weeks early because she had stopped growing. I didn't think anything of it until I talked to our other neighbor who shared that this little girl has a chromosomal anomaly called Trisonomy something (I haven't had a chance to research it on the internet)
Anyway, the life expectancy is 6-12 months. The little girl is 4 lbs. She has a 3 year old sister named Selah and this couple has moved to here to be close to the prayer room during this time.
Janelle's daily routine is to take Lydia into the prayer room from 8-10 a.m. to soak in the presence of the Lord and to receive prayer. I think this is beautiful.
It also makes me so thankful for healthy children. Again I am reminded how much I take this luxury for granted.
Please pray for this little family if you can
Trials and difficulties
Another interesting topic that caught my attention
"Trial and difficulty is about sight. What do we see in the midst of the trials?"
What he was trying to get to was that Jesus always wants to reveal himself to us in this place, this dark, lonely, scary place. And I guess that the question is what do we see. what are we looking at. Are we looking for Jesus amidst this place of seemingly destruction or are we just overwhelmed by the rubble all around us and the pain that is never ending.
"God doesn't define our life by our struggles. He defines us by the SEEDS of virtue/character that are in our heart and that we set our heart on"
The classic example being Gideon, who the angel of the Lord call "a mighty man of valor"
even though Gideon was hiding out from the enemies in a winepress and had never fought in the army.
God saw him for the SEEDS of Faith and courage he was yet to be operating in.
Isn't that crazy. That God looks at me and sees me in the maturity of the gifts that he has put into me and drawn my heart to long after.
I can't even comprehend who Katie will be in her maturity. I have guesses but I don't see her clearly. It's like treating a baby or a little kid messing around in the sand as a King because he will be the king. I'm assuming we would treat that little kid with alot more respect and honor and be more cautious at yelling at them.
Onto my next post
"Trial and difficulty is about sight. What do we see in the midst of the trials?"
What he was trying to get to was that Jesus always wants to reveal himself to us in this place, this dark, lonely, scary place. And I guess that the question is what do we see. what are we looking at. Are we looking for Jesus amidst this place of seemingly destruction or are we just overwhelmed by the rubble all around us and the pain that is never ending.
"God doesn't define our life by our struggles. He defines us by the SEEDS of virtue/character that are in our heart and that we set our heart on"
The classic example being Gideon, who the angel of the Lord call "a mighty man of valor"
even though Gideon was hiding out from the enemies in a winepress and had never fought in the army.
God saw him for the SEEDS of Faith and courage he was yet to be operating in.
Isn't that crazy. That God looks at me and sees me in the maturity of the gifts that he has put into me and drawn my heart to long after.
I can't even comprehend who Katie will be in her maturity. I have guesses but I don't see her clearly. It's like treating a baby or a little kid messing around in the sand as a King because he will be the king. I'm assuming we would treat that little kid with alot more respect and honor and be more cautious at yelling at them.
Onto my next post
My experience
We've been listening to speakers daily from noon to 3 p.m. and let me tell you this stuff is intense. The other day this guy handed us out our notes for the day, 9 pages double sided full of scripture after scripture about stuff I didn't really know was in the bible. I asked Jon if this is what Bible school was like and he said "no this is more interesting"
So I'm finally settling into the pace of it and in reviewing my notes I've found some things I thought I'd blog on.... so here goes
One was that my experience isn't real.
Kind of got my back up, unvalidating my emotions and all, however ....he said this because
Our experience is rooted in lies.
My experience lies in the word.
Interesting isn't it. The concept we are digging into is intimacy with christ and seeing ourselves as he sees us, beautiful, whole, without blemish.
So how is it that we are abused, abandoned, ensnared in sin and our experience tells us we are failures, stupid, hopelessly screwed up. Isn't that our reality? The experience I have from my reality?
But when you look at what the scripture says, we are overcomers, we are sinners saved by grace, nothing will seperate us from the love of christ, (even if we haven't repented yet) We are sons and daughter of the most high God, adopted into his kingdom individually by choice (not by pity or as a mass of refugees)We are his beloved. I have a hard time seeing myself this way as a "beloved" another word I will need to ponder.
So what does your experience say about you?
So I'm finally settling into the pace of it and in reviewing my notes I've found some things I thought I'd blog on.... so here goes
One was that my experience isn't real.
Kind of got my back up, unvalidating my emotions and all, however ....he said this because
Our experience is rooted in lies.
My experience lies in the word.
Interesting isn't it. The concept we are digging into is intimacy with christ and seeing ourselves as he sees us, beautiful, whole, without blemish.
So how is it that we are abused, abandoned, ensnared in sin and our experience tells us we are failures, stupid, hopelessly screwed up. Isn't that our reality? The experience I have from my reality?
But when you look at what the scripture says, we are overcomers, we are sinners saved by grace, nothing will seperate us from the love of christ, (even if we haven't repented yet) We are sons and daughter of the most high God, adopted into his kingdom individually by choice (not by pity or as a mass of refugees)We are his beloved. I have a hard time seeing myself this way as a "beloved" another word I will need to ponder.
So what does your experience say about you?
Can it be?...
Hello, yes it is true faithful followers, it is I Rhonda finally here.
I have traversed many technical adversities to get here and I'm not even sure how i did it. I thought I did the same thing I do everytime but this time it worked.
I miss my friends. I have decided that Blogs won't do that i need to call and catch up. so be warned.... you may want to use your call display wisely.
I am really enjoying my experience here. It was fairly overwhelming the first week but now it seems we've settled in nicely and made friends and are comfortable with our surroundings. I have yet to post pictures because our house apparently is never "clean" enough for me to want to take pictures. It is interesting how we have a billionth less stuff and it still seems to end up all over the house. Granted it isn't stuff from Jon or my's cache.
The girls are having a great time. Emma has yet to say "I'm bored" and we haven't brought a single toy except a backpack of craft supplies. I do need to post a picture of the girls bedroom wall. The twins have been doing craft pictures at school mostly every day and they are posted on their walls. The ones today were lambs with cotton balls all over them and each one had a real bandaid on it. Kate's was on the lamb's leg. Madi's was over the lamb's eyes. I don't know where she gets her humor from but she is so cute and funny.
They are into bandaids lately and we went thru our Barbie ones within a few days for a myriad of injuries (some visible and some emotional...) each requiring something. However those fancy bandaids don't have good stick so they truly are a waste of money. My 150 no name ones seem to be lasting me forever...maybe it i draw barbies on them they would be a hotter commodity.
Right now I'm in the prayer room and unfortunately there is a guy? don't know who he is butchering "You are the famous one". I'm most frustrated with the unpredictability of the worship leaders. Some are still learning which is fine but I'd like to know that before I show up. Oh well, the last sessions one I wasn't keen on and the second half just totally took off and took my breathe away.;
She was singing a song about Jesus the great intercessor and this line just gripped me, I still can't shake it...
It was "Why are you crying
Heavily sighing
Come and share with me"
Isn't this a beautiful picture. Maybe it speaks so much to me because I am a nurturer and my heart is for the one in need of care and attention.
So here is Jesus, interceding for his people and I see him and notice him crying so hard he is sighing heavily, like that's intense crying to get to that point (I guess hyperventilating didn't really go with the flow of the song)
And I sit and see his pain and reach out and ask him to share it with me. Oh this truly grips my heart. I'm going to need to sit with this for a while to just have it become more real and truly understand what the Lord is saying to me in this.
I think this is the first time I have ever seen myself in the position of doing something for the lord. Of being the one to first consider his condition and concern myself with what he's concerned with. It seems so tender I just can't look away from the picture of me leaning into this mess of a "person" who's got empty kleenex boxes littering the floor and his face is red from weeping and he's exhausted and full of sorrow and just putting a hand on his knee and looking into his eyes and asking him to share with me. That I truly care and will sit with him even if there is nothing else I can say. I think this is so real because I can totally visualize this. Something i've done before but never linked to the humanity of Jesus.
Anyway, I have many posts yet to do. I've been keeping a list of things for "such a time as this"... (that's a IHOP saying
I have traversed many technical adversities to get here and I'm not even sure how i did it. I thought I did the same thing I do everytime but this time it worked.
I miss my friends. I have decided that Blogs won't do that i need to call and catch up. so be warned.... you may want to use your call display wisely.
I am really enjoying my experience here. It was fairly overwhelming the first week but now it seems we've settled in nicely and made friends and are comfortable with our surroundings. I have yet to post pictures because our house apparently is never "clean" enough for me to want to take pictures. It is interesting how we have a billionth less stuff and it still seems to end up all over the house. Granted it isn't stuff from Jon or my's cache.
The girls are having a great time. Emma has yet to say "I'm bored" and we haven't brought a single toy except a backpack of craft supplies. I do need to post a picture of the girls bedroom wall. The twins have been doing craft pictures at school mostly every day and they are posted on their walls. The ones today were lambs with cotton balls all over them and each one had a real bandaid on it. Kate's was on the lamb's leg. Madi's was over the lamb's eyes. I don't know where she gets her humor from but she is so cute and funny.
They are into bandaids lately and we went thru our Barbie ones within a few days for a myriad of injuries (some visible and some emotional...) each requiring something. However those fancy bandaids don't have good stick so they truly are a waste of money. My 150 no name ones seem to be lasting me forever...maybe it i draw barbies on them they would be a hotter commodity.
Right now I'm in the prayer room and unfortunately there is a guy? don't know who he is butchering "You are the famous one". I'm most frustrated with the unpredictability of the worship leaders. Some are still learning which is fine but I'd like to know that before I show up. Oh well, the last sessions one I wasn't keen on and the second half just totally took off and took my breathe away.;
She was singing a song about Jesus the great intercessor and this line just gripped me, I still can't shake it...
It was "Why are you crying
Heavily sighing
Come and share with me"
Isn't this a beautiful picture. Maybe it speaks so much to me because I am a nurturer and my heart is for the one in need of care and attention.
So here is Jesus, interceding for his people and I see him and notice him crying so hard he is sighing heavily, like that's intense crying to get to that point (I guess hyperventilating didn't really go with the flow of the song)
And I sit and see his pain and reach out and ask him to share it with me. Oh this truly grips my heart. I'm going to need to sit with this for a while to just have it become more real and truly understand what the Lord is saying to me in this.
I think this is the first time I have ever seen myself in the position of doing something for the lord. Of being the one to first consider his condition and concern myself with what he's concerned with. It seems so tender I just can't look away from the picture of me leaning into this mess of a "person" who's got empty kleenex boxes littering the floor and his face is red from weeping and he's exhausted and full of sorrow and just putting a hand on his knee and looking into his eyes and asking him to share with me. That I truly care and will sit with him even if there is nothing else I can say. I think this is so real because I can totally visualize this. Something i've done before but never linked to the humanity of Jesus.
Anyway, I have many posts yet to do. I've been keeping a list of things for "such a time as this"... (that's a IHOP saying
Faith Like A Child
Yesterday we went to our first "Malachi" kids prayer meeting. For those of you who have been to IHOP, it is exactly the same as what happens in the Global Prayer Room except it is done by kids between the ages of 10-14. For those of you who have not been here (yet) - just imagine a full musical worship team, with a small group of singers off to the side and a ministry facilitator at the front leading you in worship and prayer for 2 hours.
It was so cool to see these kids leading the rapid fire prayer, playing the instruments and allowing the Holy Spirit to lead them in singing prophetic songs. It was also exciting to see so many other young families with their kids coming together in worship and prayer as families, and a community of families.
At one point the kids were praying for marriages and laying hands on their parents, asking God to pour out His Spirit on them. (And the kids were actually praying for them with their own words for a significant length of time).
I think my favourite parts were when they taught us the Apostolic prayers through action songs! Our kids didn't seem to get it (or so we thought) but it was eye opening to see how kids church could look. Deep theology, practical application and full involvement in doing peer leadership.
My other favourite moment was seeing Emma step out and start to participate in the rapid fire prayer time. She had spent about 45 minutes sitting in the back coloring in her notebook (because there were a lot of people and she is quite shy around crowds). I had asked her if she wanted to join me in the worship but she said 'no'. The next thing I know Rhonda is pointing to the rapid fire line where Emma is waiting her turn to pray! She prayed for all the people that didn't know Jesus and aksed that He would pour out His Spirit on them. It was not the particular prayer focus for that time but it didn't matter - I was beaming with pride in the faith of my kid to step out of her comfort zone, open her mouth and move the heart of our merciful Father by her words. Well needless to say, it didn't take long before the next prayer focus came up and she was back in line praying for "Revival in America".
Looking back, I think it really helped that her friend Hannah showed up half-way into the meeting. Hannah's a real fireball (at the age of 3) and I think will be a great encourager for our kids.
As I had mentioned earlier, I didn't think the kids had picked up on the Apostolic prayers during the prayer meeting, but I was wrong. I went to pick the kids up from their classes a few hours later and Kate came walking down the hall singing Acts 2 (along with actions) "Pour out your Spirit, on Your sons and daughters" over and over. I asked her if she had learned that in class today and she said 'No, Jesus taught it to me".
We got home, and as is our usual custom, the kids spent some time coloring while Rhonda and I spend a few moments being in our apartment simultaneously. A few minutes later, Kate came up to me with a picture she had just painted. It was a yellow piece of paper with sweeping lines of vibrant color on it. As any good dad would do I first told her that I liked it a lot, and then asked her what it was? She responded with a big Katie smile..."It's a picture of the Holy Spirit!".
So if you've ever wondered what He's like I can tell you this - He looks like a lot of fun!
Anyways, those are some highlights from Tuesday and I'm sure there will be more to tell by the time noon comes around today.
Hope everyone is well and we would love to hear what is happening in your lives too.
Blessings,
Jon
It was so cool to see these kids leading the rapid fire prayer, playing the instruments and allowing the Holy Spirit to lead them in singing prophetic songs. It was also exciting to see so many other young families with their kids coming together in worship and prayer as families, and a community of families.
At one point the kids were praying for marriages and laying hands on their parents, asking God to pour out His Spirit on them. (And the kids were actually praying for them with their own words for a significant length of time).
I think my favourite parts were when they taught us the Apostolic prayers through action songs! Our kids didn't seem to get it (or so we thought) but it was eye opening to see how kids church could look. Deep theology, practical application and full involvement in doing peer leadership.
My other favourite moment was seeing Emma step out and start to participate in the rapid fire prayer time. She had spent about 45 minutes sitting in the back coloring in her notebook (because there were a lot of people and she is quite shy around crowds). I had asked her if she wanted to join me in the worship but she said 'no'. The next thing I know Rhonda is pointing to the rapid fire line where Emma is waiting her turn to pray! She prayed for all the people that didn't know Jesus and aksed that He would pour out His Spirit on them. It was not the particular prayer focus for that time but it didn't matter - I was beaming with pride in the faith of my kid to step out of her comfort zone, open her mouth and move the heart of our merciful Father by her words. Well needless to say, it didn't take long before the next prayer focus came up and she was back in line praying for "Revival in America".
Looking back, I think it really helped that her friend Hannah showed up half-way into the meeting. Hannah's a real fireball (at the age of 3) and I think will be a great encourager for our kids.
As I had mentioned earlier, I didn't think the kids had picked up on the Apostolic prayers during the prayer meeting, but I was wrong. I went to pick the kids up from their classes a few hours later and Kate came walking down the hall singing Acts 2 (along with actions) "Pour out your Spirit, on Your sons and daughters" over and over. I asked her if she had learned that in class today and she said 'No, Jesus taught it to me".
We got home, and as is our usual custom, the kids spent some time coloring while Rhonda and I spend a few moments being in our apartment simultaneously. A few minutes later, Kate came up to me with a picture she had just painted. It was a yellow piece of paper with sweeping lines of vibrant color on it. As any good dad would do I first told her that I liked it a lot, and then asked her what it was? She responded with a big Katie smile..."It's a picture of the Holy Spirit!".
So if you've ever wondered what He's like I can tell you this - He looks like a lot of fun!
Anyways, those are some highlights from Tuesday and I'm sure there will be more to tell by the time noon comes around today.
Hope everyone is well and we would love to hear what is happening in your lives too.
Blessings,
Jon
Monday, 14 September 2009
Monday Morning Update
Yesterday we had a relaxing day hanging out as a family and enjoying the pool at the Holiday Inn Express thanks to our friends Stephanie and Laura who were visiting from Manitoba. Thanks guys for hanging out with us! It was nice to have familiar faces around as we transition into our new community.
On that note, we have met another family in our building who have 2 young daughters and we are becoming fast friends. John and Sara Markman along with Hanah (3) and Esther (2) went through Commission a year ago and decided to come on staff. After going through staff orientation they returned home to begin raising support. They are now in KC beginning the process of finding a house and a place to serve on the base. We really enjoy them and it's so great for our kids to have other kids their age to play "dress-up" with.
So Rhonda and I have decided to trade our prayer room slots so that she can hang out with Sara in the mornings and the boys can hang out in the evenings.
-
God continues to open up new things to us on a daily basis and we are loving it!
A few days ago we were reminded in one of our sessions that Psalm 16 says:
"In Your presence is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore"
How joyful is "full" joy? And how often do I meditate on the reality that the Giver of all life lives in, and is by nature, continuous unlimited joy? He has a never ending supply of pleasure to share with me and He is not stingy in sharing it. Matthew 7 says that He gives to everyone who asks! And who is siting at His right hand? Christ! Christ is seated in, and is fact, the fullness of the Fathers joy - and His spirit is alive us me! So awesome!!
So today I ask that the Father of Glory would give to you all, the knowledge of His unbridled joy and pleasure, and His immeasurable delight in you His beloved!
Jon
PS: In a completely other vein, yesterday was the first time in 16 years that I have not watched a single football game on the opening day of the NFL season. I do know that Brett Favre won his first game in the dreaded purple, but I am learning to be "merciful to all"!
On that note, we have met another family in our building who have 2 young daughters and we are becoming fast friends. John and Sara Markman along with Hanah (3) and Esther (2) went through Commission a year ago and decided to come on staff. After going through staff orientation they returned home to begin raising support. They are now in KC beginning the process of finding a house and a place to serve on the base. We really enjoy them and it's so great for our kids to have other kids their age to play "dress-up" with.
So Rhonda and I have decided to trade our prayer room slots so that she can hang out with Sara in the mornings and the boys can hang out in the evenings.
-
God continues to open up new things to us on a daily basis and we are loving it!
A few days ago we were reminded in one of our sessions that Psalm 16 says:
"In Your presence is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore"
How joyful is "full" joy? And how often do I meditate on the reality that the Giver of all life lives in, and is by nature, continuous unlimited joy? He has a never ending supply of pleasure to share with me and He is not stingy in sharing it. Matthew 7 says that He gives to everyone who asks! And who is siting at His right hand? Christ! Christ is seated in, and is fact, the fullness of the Fathers joy - and His spirit is alive us me! So awesome!!
So today I ask that the Father of Glory would give to you all, the knowledge of His unbridled joy and pleasure, and His immeasurable delight in you His beloved!
Jon
PS: In a completely other vein, yesterday was the first time in 16 years that I have not watched a single football game on the opening day of the NFL season. I do know that Brett Favre won his first game in the dreaded purple, but I am learning to be "merciful to all"!
Friday, 11 September 2009
Commenting NOW Works!
OK, so obviously the settings had not saved (probably due to our pitsy internet connection) but I have now confirmed that they have been changed.
Thursday, 10 September 2009
Thursday Update
We've been having issues with our internet connection since we arrived so please excuse our infrequent emails/posts. In fact, I don't think Rhonda has actually been able to get online for more than a minute at a time. (So Yvonne and Michelle, she has not forgotten you - she will hopefully be able to blog tomorrow morning.)
We have our first guests arriving from Manitoba tomorrow so we are looking forward to sharing our experience with them and seeing some familiar faces. For the rest of you who have said you are planning on coming - please let us know when you might arrive because we can have guests come to our classes at no charge if we give advance notice. (If you do come you will definitely want to come to a class!)
A correction to yesterday's post. There are actually 100 people in our Commission group (and about 40% are from Korea).
We have been spending a fair bit of our time in conversation with a couple from New Zealand. Phil is Dutch, his wife Lek is from Taiwan and they have a 9 yr old son Benjamin. They have spent a lot of time in at Toronto Airport Vineyard (or whatever it's called now) and are part of a Vineyard church in New Zealand. It's interesting talking with them because our experiences and life circumstances are so very similar to theirs. It's also nice for our kids to play together because the 4 of them are the only english speaking kids in our program. Without Emma, Benjamin would have no one his age to talk to. We are both here for 3 months and I would imagine we will be seeing a lot of each other (or at least each others kids).
I'd love to blog more about my internal workings today but it seems way too vast to put into a few words.
One nugget that doesn't require too much explanation is this - we were invited today to lay down our "edited" versions of who we believe God to be for a complete image of God that is fashioned by the entire revelation of Him found in scripture.
So often we set aside things about God that we either don't like or can not explain because it makes our image of God more acceptable or understandable. The problem with this edited approach is that we end up making God in our own image/idea. God has a very simple word for this practice - "idolatry". So the God of mercy AND justice have to exist together in our hearts/minds. The Lion and the Lamb have to both exist in equal measure in our understanding at all times. God does not take off mercy to exercise judgement - His judgments are delivered OUT of His mercy. He never changes! So He is both the giver of mercy and the righteous judge at the same time, all the time. There is no space for setting aside attributes of His character simply because we can't explain how they work together (in our own minds), because the truth is that they work perfectly in His.
The result is that we are being asked to look deeper into the workings of His character then we have done in the past. No pat answers. No towing the conference line (whatever that line may be). Simply trusting that when He presents Himself as "the avenger of blood" (Numbers 35) that it works in perfect partnership with "I delight in mercy"(Micah 7:18).
At any rate. My battery is about to konk out and I need to check my emails.
Jon
We have our first guests arriving from Manitoba tomorrow so we are looking forward to sharing our experience with them and seeing some familiar faces. For the rest of you who have said you are planning on coming - please let us know when you might arrive because we can have guests come to our classes at no charge if we give advance notice. (If you do come you will definitely want to come to a class!)
A correction to yesterday's post. There are actually 100 people in our Commission group (and about 40% are from Korea).
We have been spending a fair bit of our time in conversation with a couple from New Zealand. Phil is Dutch, his wife Lek is from Taiwan and they have a 9 yr old son Benjamin. They have spent a lot of time in at Toronto Airport Vineyard (or whatever it's called now) and are part of a Vineyard church in New Zealand. It's interesting talking with them because our experiences and life circumstances are so very similar to theirs. It's also nice for our kids to play together because the 4 of them are the only english speaking kids in our program. Without Emma, Benjamin would have no one his age to talk to. We are both here for 3 months and I would imagine we will be seeing a lot of each other (or at least each others kids).
I'd love to blog more about my internal workings today but it seems way too vast to put into a few words.
One nugget that doesn't require too much explanation is this - we were invited today to lay down our "edited" versions of who we believe God to be for a complete image of God that is fashioned by the entire revelation of Him found in scripture.
So often we set aside things about God that we either don't like or can not explain because it makes our image of God more acceptable or understandable. The problem with this edited approach is that we end up making God in our own image/idea. God has a very simple word for this practice - "idolatry". So the God of mercy AND justice have to exist together in our hearts/minds. The Lion and the Lamb have to both exist in equal measure in our understanding at all times. God does not take off mercy to exercise judgement - His judgments are delivered OUT of His mercy. He never changes! So He is both the giver of mercy and the righteous judge at the same time, all the time. There is no space for setting aside attributes of His character simply because we can't explain how they work together (in our own minds), because the truth is that they work perfectly in His.
The result is that we are being asked to look deeper into the workings of His character then we have done in the past. No pat answers. No towing the conference line (whatever that line may be). Simply trusting that when He presents Himself as "the avenger of blood" (Numbers 35) that it works in perfect partnership with "I delight in mercy"(Micah 7:18).
At any rate. My battery is about to konk out and I need to check my emails.
Jon
You Too Can Post A Comment!
Just a quick note - everyone who wants to can now post comments on our blog without having to set up a Blogger account.
Wednesday, 9 September 2009
In The Beginning
It's the beginning and I don't even know where to start!
Today we had our first day of classes and discovered there are 5 young adults in our Commission group from Steinbach! Needless to say, we were not surprised to find out that they attend Southland!! There are about 60 people in our group and I would guess that almost half of them are from Asia. The "Asian Invasion" is so large that they provide in class translation in Korean via wireless headsets.
The girls enrolled in their kids programs and the twins are currently the only 2 kids in the 2-5 yr old class. There are other kids registered but they have not arrived as of yet. We are hoping that there will at least be a few other students for them to make friends with. I guess it's another blessing of having a twin sister - you are ensured you will always have at least 1 friend!
Right now I am just finishing my daily 4 hour prayer room time (8pm - Midnight) and Rhonda will be doing hers daily from 6 am - 10 am. We have classes every day from noon until 3 pm at which time the girls are in their own classes.
We also bought a pay-as-you-go phone today and will be activating it tomorrow. I will email everyone our number as soon as I know what it is. (If you don't get an email it means we don't want to hear from you....just joking! Please leave a comment on the blog if we forget to email the number to you and we will get it to you right away.)
Beyond the practicality of classes, schedules and logistics, today I was struck by the reality that our lives have forever be changed by embarking on this journey. We have visited here many times and have always come away with new insights and blessings, and we knew that this would be life changing, but today there was a profound realization in my heart that EVERYTHING is about to be re-established in our hearts and minds. For a long time I have believed that one can not look upon the face of Jesus and NOT be changed - and that is what we are being called to do, 4 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 3 months. How can we ever be the same?!
Tonight as I was reading the Word, I was drawn into Song of Songs 6:5 - "Turn your eyes from me; they overwhelm me." (NIV).
Those are the words spoken by the Holy Spirit to me! Below is the extent of my entire journal entry for today:
I have come
To ravish the heart of the uncreated God
By setting my eyes upon my Beloved
That's it. That's all.
I can render to complete mush the heart of the uncreated God simply by looking His way. He must REALLY think I (You) are something special!!
I have to go, but we are very excited about the coming days and look forward to sharing whatever details we can put into words with you.
Jon
Today we had our first day of classes and discovered there are 5 young adults in our Commission group from Steinbach! Needless to say, we were not surprised to find out that they attend Southland!! There are about 60 people in our group and I would guess that almost half of them are from Asia. The "Asian Invasion" is so large that they provide in class translation in Korean via wireless headsets.
The girls enrolled in their kids programs and the twins are currently the only 2 kids in the 2-5 yr old class. There are other kids registered but they have not arrived as of yet. We are hoping that there will at least be a few other students for them to make friends with. I guess it's another blessing of having a twin sister - you are ensured you will always have at least 1 friend!
Right now I am just finishing my daily 4 hour prayer room time (8pm - Midnight) and Rhonda will be doing hers daily from 6 am - 10 am. We have classes every day from noon until 3 pm at which time the girls are in their own classes.
We also bought a pay-as-you-go phone today and will be activating it tomorrow. I will email everyone our number as soon as I know what it is. (If you don't get an email it means we don't want to hear from you....just joking! Please leave a comment on the blog if we forget to email the number to you and we will get it to you right away.)
Beyond the practicality of classes, schedules and logistics, today I was struck by the reality that our lives have forever be changed by embarking on this journey. We have visited here many times and have always come away with new insights and blessings, and we knew that this would be life changing, but today there was a profound realization in my heart that EVERYTHING is about to be re-established in our hearts and minds. For a long time I have believed that one can not look upon the face of Jesus and NOT be changed - and that is what we are being called to do, 4 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 3 months. How can we ever be the same?!
Tonight as I was reading the Word, I was drawn into Song of Songs 6:5 - "Turn your eyes from me; they overwhelm me." (NIV).
Those are the words spoken by the Holy Spirit to me! Below is the extent of my entire journal entry for today:
I have come
To ravish the heart of the uncreated God
By setting my eyes upon my Beloved
That's it. That's all.
I can render to complete mush the heart of the uncreated God simply by looking His way. He must REALLY think I (You) are something special!!
I have to go, but we are very excited about the coming days and look forward to sharing whatever details we can put into words with you.
Jon
Monday, 7 September 2009
We Are Here
We spent most of Friday at the Omaha Zoo (which was a blast) and arrived in KC around 10 pm. After unloading the van we realized that we needed to buy a few essentials and headed to the all night Walmart at midnight. We arrived home just after 1 am and got to bed sometime after 2. Needless to say, we are exhausted and spending a lot of time catching up on our sleep.
We are currently able to receive email but are not able to send yet.
We also don't have internet in our building so our updates will be limited to times when we are at the coffee shop or in the prayer room.
Rhonda will update later today if we can get back to the prayer room.
Jon
We are currently able to receive email but are not able to send yet.
We also don't have internet in our building so our updates will be limited to times when we are at the coffee shop or in the prayer room.
Rhonda will update later today if we can get back to the prayer room.
Jon
Thursday, 3 September 2009
Arrived in Sioux City
Last night we packed until 2 AM and decided that we would be well served to have more than 4 hours of sleep before driving all day. So, after an easy-breezy border crossing, we crawled our way through down the I29 towards Sioux City. (In case anyone is planning on going south in the near future, almost the entire stretch of I29 from Grand Forks to Sioux City is under construction and down to 1 lane in either direction.)
We just checked in to the Holiday Inn and Emma, Kate & Rhonda are headed for the pool. Madison and I are going across the street to Chili's for a late supper. We all had a good laugh as we pulled up to the hotel and saw the International House of Pancakes right next to our hotel!
Tomorrow we head out to Omaha for a few hours at the zoo before arriving at the House of Prayer around supper time.
Hope you all enjoy the MB mosquitoe's!
Jon
We just checked in to the Holiday Inn and Emma, Kate & Rhonda are headed for the pool. Madison and I are going across the street to Chili's for a late supper. We all had a good laugh as we pulled up to the hotel and saw the International House of Pancakes right next to our hotel!
Tomorrow we head out to Omaha for a few hours at the zoo before arriving at the House of Prayer around supper time.
Hope you all enjoy the MB mosquitoe's!
Jon
Tuesday, 1 September 2009
PACK, PACK, PACK
I just got our blog set-up and now it's back to more packing, cleaning and absolute craziness!
We leave on Thursday morning and will over-night in Sioux City. Then it's off to Omaha to visit an amazing zoo before arriving in KC on friday night.
Cheers,
Jon
We leave on Thursday morning and will over-night in Sioux City. Then it's off to Omaha to visit an amazing zoo before arriving in KC on friday night.
Cheers,
Jon
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