Dr. Seuss & the Kingdom of God

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“Coach Nick, Coach Nick, come play tetherball with us!” were the shouts heard as Nick and I walked alongside the fence of the playground of Lugonia Elementary School. Nick In’t Hout is one of the pastors at The River, a church in Redlands California. The River has officially adopted Lugonia, a nearby public school which has an overwhelming population of students attending with difficult circumstances. In response to that need, The River decided to faithfully send volunteers to assist in the library, tutor students, and help out in the PE program.

As Nick we entered the stucco building to check in and continue on with a tour of the campus, it seemed that everyone knew who Nick was, from the office staff, to the teachers, even the maintenance workers, and of course the excited kids who surrounded him as we walked onto the playground. Nick called so many of kids by name which resulted in countless beaming faces, along with laughter and smiles as the kids pulled him on the court to play tetherball. It was clear that something special was taking place.

The kids had persuaded him and went nuts as he jumped in line to participate; they danced around as they waited to take their turn to challenge him. I thought Nick may just let a young Spanish girl who gave it her all win, but no, it was a match to the very end. As the recess bell rang the kids begrudgingly lined up to return to their classrooms, shouts were heard about a rematch next time he comes. As we left the school we passed a group of students coming out of the library yelling, “Look its Dr. Seuss!” Nick responded in a whisper, “No, I’m just his brother.” When I asked Nick what that was about he told me that for Dr. Seuss’ Birthday he had dressed up as this beloved character and spent the day reading books in several classrooms.

As we left the campus I filled with so much joy! I was so blessed by what I had just witnessed. I said to Nick, “This is the Kingdom of God! Right here in the middle of a needy part of the city.” Nick and the other volunteers from The River brought the love of the Father in a tangible way. From tetherball games to reading “Fried Eggs and Ham,” heaven’s love was coming to earth and it was contagious. It reminded me of the text from Romans 14:17-18:

For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men.

 God’s pleasure, peace, and joy were all over that campus as King Jesus demonstrated the Father’s Kingdom through faithful volunteers being His love through beautiful acts of service. People like you and me living our daily lives!

I left challenged and motivated by the “Holy Ground” I experienced at Lugonia School. I want to be available do whatever it takes to bring the love of the Father’s Kingdom to earth, maybe even dressing up like Dr. Seuss.

“Vibrations!”

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Bob has the gift of intercession and as he prayed I could sense the darkness shake in our midst as he called on heaven to break the strongholds in our city. After a group of us finished praying on a Saturday morning for our city I had the privilege to talk with Bob and thank him for his bold prayers. In the course of our conversation he told me about a missionary to the Muslims in North Africa, Lilias Trotter.

 

The story blessed and encouraged me; I hope it inspires you as well. Lilias was a single woman who spent a good portion of her life sharing Christ’s love in the spiritually dark environment of Algiers Africa in the early 1900’s. Many who converted to Christ were killed and Lilias and others were continuously opposed and attacked for their work. Lilias became a powerful prayer warrior and believed her persistent prayers would break the strongholds of satan in Algiers and usher in a move of the Holy Spirit in the country.

 

God revealed to her in a tangible sign of how this would work in a very unexpected way. One day the building where she lived collapsed. When the investigation was completed the reason why was pinned to the bread baker who worked in the basement of the building. For 7 years the machine to knead the bread caused vibrations that daily penetrated into the foundation of the building, and eventually cracked the foundation leading to the fall of the entire building. Here is Miss Trotter’s amazing spiritual interpretation of the event:

 

For there is a vibrating power going on down in the darkness and dust of this world that can make itself visible in starting results in the upper air and sunlight of the invisible world, “mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.” Each prayer-beat down here vibrates up to the very throne of God, and does its work through that throne on the principalities and powers around us, just as each one of the repeated throbs from below told on the structure of our house, though it was only the last one that produced the visible effect. We can never tell which prayer will liberate the answer, but we can tell that each one will do its work: we know that “if we ask anything according to His will He heareth us, and if we know that He hear us we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.”

 

Each prayer has powerful effects and over time prayer pulls down strongholds in the heavenly realm:

 

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 2 Cor. 10:4

 

So take courage and continue to persevere in your prayers believing your prayers are powerful vibrations that Abba Father in time will use to destroy the strongholds of addictions, false religions, strangling fears, and anything else that will stand in the way of knowing the healing love of God the Father.

“No One Will Be at My Funeral!”

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Have you ever thought about your funeral and who would show up? Last week as we were doing ministry in downtown Denver I spent time talking to an individual I will call Travis. It was a gut wrenching conversation filled with graphic details of a life filled with abuse, foster homes, and mental health wards leaving Travis in search of love in all the wrong places. He shared with me that his greatest fear is not death, which he indicated would be a blessing, but that no one would show up at his funeral. “I just want someone there to testify to the fact that I’m loved,” he said with tear filled eyes.

 

I shared this same story at a marriage retreat I was apart of this past weekend. Where, as one would guess, love was the number one topic. No marriage or family can properly function without the Holy Spirit filling of the Father’s love demonstrated by the gift of His only Son Jesus. Travis never experienced this love of the Father poured out on him through his earthly parents or the foster home system. If only someone could have pointed Travis to the love of Christ displayed on the cross, perhaps his life would not be filled with such extreme pain and loneliness.

 

At the marriage retreat I had the privilege of talking with a couple that I officiated their wedding 11 years ago. As we were catching up they shared with me how their young family had grown to two biological, two adopted, and two foster children. Joy might not even describe how I felt as Chad and Leah shared their journey to opening their hearts and home to be a place of the Father’s love. As you can imagine it is not an easy journey to raise six kids. Add to that the fact that some of these children are literally starved for affection and attention and gripped by fear initiated by rejection and separation from biological parents.

 

Sunday morning I awoke early thinking again about Travis and his childhood trauma and Chad and Leah’s commitment to bring hurting children into their home in order to encounter the healing love from a Holy Father. Lord willing those children coming into Chad and Leah’s home will never have to walk through life feeling unloved like Travis. They will know at a young age to the perfect love of God that cast out all fear and brings certainty through the Spirit of Jesus that they are children of the King.

 

As I contemplated the difference between the love the foster children were experiencing with Chad and Leah and the loveless void Travis experienced my mind went back to my last moments with Travis last Tuesday night. I kept feeling the nudge of the Holy Spirit say to me “tell Travis that you love him and I love him and give him a big huge.” Yes, other voices were also speaking in my mind countering the Spirit’s push but eventually I reached out to Travis hugged him and told I loved him but more importantly the Father in Heaven loved him and he would never have to be alone.

 

I’m not sure how the Holy Spirit worked that night in Travis’s heart but I do know He has been speaking loudly to me the last few days, “Don’t hold My love back, open up your heart and keep giving it away!” Maybe this week the Father will bring a Travis into your life, “Don’t hold back, and give His love away!” 

Ad Fontes

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Before you get too impressed with my Latin title, Ad Fontes, I have to admit I’m borrowing it from Dr. Donald Sweeting, new president at Colorado Christian University. Patty and I recently attended the inauguration and there he shared his vision for CCU-Ad Fontes, which literally means return to the fountain. Dr. Sweeting articulately spoke about his belief that many aspects of higher education are floundering because as a culture the true source of knowledge, which is Jesus Christ, has been abandoned and replaced with a relativistic approach. In such cases there is no absolute truth. Without truth to build upon there is no anchor and high education is a rudderless ship tossed about by the whim of the latest theories.

Dr. Sweeting’s address parallels a message by the pastor and theologian John Piper who states the ultimate essence of evil can be found in Jeremiah 2:13:

My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken Me the spring of living water and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

Ancient Israel’s two sins sound like a commentary on our present society as well. We have left the source of Living Water in exchange for broken systems that we have built that leak and leave us spiritually parched. Piper stated “the essence of evil is to lose our taste for God or to prefer anything more than God.” We are saturated with the seduction of the serpent who continues to spew out lies that we must eat from “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” to be truly satisfied. Just like our first parents we look at the luscious tree of self -rule, throwing off our need to walk in loving communion with Father God. As a result we run around exposed, desperately trying to cloth ourselves with fame, fortune, and countless false gods that are unable to cover up the shame.

Amen to Ad Fontes! I believe the Holy Spirit is calling the Father’s children back to the source of Living Water. This call is not only to higher education, but also the church. Both need to return to the foundation and drink deeply from Jesus Christ. Five hundred years ago it was the cry of the Reformers to get back to the source, Christ alone, Faith alone, Grace alone, Scripture alone, and the Glory of God alone. It is time again to go back to the source, back to the book of Acts and thirst for what that early church had. There we see a church filled with the gift of the Father, His Spirit and they were an unstoppable force that turned the world upside down as the preached with power and performed signs and wonders that pointed to a Father in Heaven who sent His only Son as the perfect sacrifice for sin.

The vision of Oceans Ministries is to reveal the love of the Father to spiritual and physical orphans around the world so that they may know they belong to Father who loves them dearly. I need this, you need this, we all need Ad Fontes! May the Spirit of the Father be unleashed again in our day and flood the nations with Heaven’s love that comes through knowing Jesus Christ as the fountain of life.

Please, please make it your priority to pray and ask our Abba Father to send upon us a fresh outpouring of the River of Life to revive our thirsty souls with His presence once again. Let the waters of His love be the desire of our hearts.

Ekklesia – The Called Out Ones!

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On Sunday morning I gathered with a group of men in a sterile white room lined with plastic chairs in the Denver County Jail. The men dressed in blue sweat outfits with orange shoes are being held and awaiting a trial to determine their future. Some will soon be released while others may face years of incarceration. The fear in their faces was obvious as their lives literally hang in the balance of the court system. These men joined us for an hour in God’s Word and a time of prayer. For some this a brief reprieve from the prison pod was a new experience while others knew many scriptures by heart.

 

In the human all seemed lost. Once you are in the system you are a marked man or woman and even if you get out the chances are slim to none short of a miracle. So in my spirit I prayed over each individual asking for the Holy Spirit to defy the odds and do something supernatural in each of their hearts leading them to a life-changing encounter with Christ. As the large medal door closed behind me there was both a feeling of joy of encountering Jesus in jail but also an inner pain knowing that the path for most of them would be extremely difficult.

 

And on Sunday afternoon I gathered with a body of believers at church launch in inner city Denver. Avenue Church is birthed out of an Ethiopian church and this room consisted of multiple cultures and ages. I felt like I was back worshiping with my brothers and sisters in Africa. The pastor’s name is David and he preached a powerful message from Matthew 16:18:

 

And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not overcome it.

 

Pastor David shared that the Greek word for church is ekklesia, which means to be called out. He said the word church is not linked to a building, a tradition, or a denomination, rather it means God’s calling out of a life of sin to a new life found in a relationship with Jesus Christ. These called out ones storm the gates of hell and together with Christ bring His Kingdom to earth in transformational power.

 

Pastor David can testify to the power of being called out by the Spirit of Almighty God. He spent time in jail and has a record as a convicted felon for several crimes. Yet in his darkest time he met a group of Ethiopian Christians who took him in and loved him. Through these grace filled called out ones he found Christ and was transformed and discipled to become the pastor of a gathering of called out ones, who Sunday stormed the gates of hell in inner city Denver.

 

Sunday night I went to bed thinking about the men I met in jail, Pastor David and the power of the called out ones to share and show the transformational love of Jesus Christ. Throughout the day Abba Father showed me the power of His Church, The Called Out Ones. Jails, addictions, racial barriers, religious spirits, and all the demonic schemes of hell try to keep people in bondage-but the Called Out Ones storm these gates. You and I are the church, the called out ones, called to storm the gates of hell, called to lead others out of darkness into the transforming light of Christ. Who knows, you may touch the next Pastor David by simply showing and sharing the love of Jesus Christ.