Brutally Compassionate!

Growing up on a farm in Northwestern Wisconsin might seem like a mundane way to experience childhood. There were of course times that were quite mundane, yet others were filled with adventure. As a boy, there are few things that you remember as well as your first fort, your first b.b. gun, the first time you kissed a girl, and actually liked it, the first time you got lost, the time when your parents kissed or swore in front of you, or the first fist fight.

One of my most vivid memories of childhood was the first time I was hit full in the face. My foe had worked out the very mechanics of hitting me: the need for bodily compactness, the proper fist, the assured step forward, the intent in his eyes, the virtue of a solid right. I remember thinking about it coming and an inability to move. I literally was captivated by its trajectory. I remember vividly the sound. If you’ve never been struck in the face your better off for it, but if you can identify, you will recollect the high pitch ringing. This ringing is so invasively present that you want to look to see if anyone else can hear it; of course they cannot. The ringing contributes to your overall sense of delirium. This feeling of floating, then the actual pain hits you and your little break in the day comes crashing down. One becomes keenly aware of the moments that follow.

What I remember of the instance was this sense that I had just achieved something. You know, it was as if I had entered into the realm of manhood. The place reserved for warriors, rakes, and cowboys. As I stood there stunned, because it takes a great deal to knock someone down. I was filled with this urgency to compose myself, and try not to cry. I didn’t. I remember taking three deep intentional breaths; the kind of breath that actually burns it goes so deep. The desire to cry was quickly replaced by a sense of rugged resilience.

A mature youngster would have thoroughly analyzed the situation and quickly discovered some very realistic problems with returning the aggression. I however was not this youngster. Not entirely sure where this impulse originated, I engaged the brute, mostly words at first. Words, vulgar words. You know the kind that you would never say in front of your grandmother. Words, which would strip him of value, dignity, or any sense of pride for his action against me. This was followed by the wind of a left coming at my chin. A near miss that was countered with a direct hit in the right eye of Goliath.

You know you would think that this would give a young guy defending himself against an infidel, a real sense of pleasure. I wanted to feel like I had just saved the day, or that I had at least asserted my will upon the mountain. Perhaps, the mountain had been conquered. However I still felt like I was in the valley. I wasn’t filled with pride, the way a champion should. Instead, I filled with pity, sadness, even a genuine remorse for my adversary.

I must have gotten hit harder than I thought, because I began to be concerned with the details of this kids life. I wondered why this idea to strike me was acceptable to him? I had wondered how many times he experienced this himself? I wondered who taught him to throw a strong right? Did his father strike him? Did he have a father?

As the encounter broke up, and the swelling in my left jaw was met with the swelling of empathy, I found myself broken in an altogether different way. Filled with the weight of my unethical encounter, I saw for the first time how incapable I was of really loving. Not that I was at all enamored with this kid, but the general idea of love for fellow man, had escaped me. In the days following, I became more aware of the damage my words may have caused an already abused kid. I even felt like slugging myself. Interesting how something as simple as turning the other cheek can call out another’s greatness, diminishing violence.

I declare Healing over Haiti!

My heart aches for the people of Haiti. I see through the news and footage online, the people that are in the middle of chaos and poverty. Right now I am praying to see a supernatural miracle of God hit that country so hard, that those people will be blinded by the magnificent light of Jesus!

God sees the devastation in that country and He sees His children hurting and I know that He is going to bless them and cradle them in His arms! Haiti was affected by an earthquake and not by the wrath of God. It is now up to us to pray and DECLARE healing over Haiti right now!!!

Lord, we declare your love and blessing over Haiti! I see you healing them and astonishing them with streams of blessing. You have called us to heal nations!!! I declare that right now they will have as much help as they need so that this country can leave the poverty they are in and become prosperous!!! Holy Spirit move!!!!!

Lets heal the sick, raise the dead! In Jesus' Name!!!

I've been thinking a lot about this whole Royalty thing lately. This has been something that I have struggled with for quite some time. Lately the whole poverty mentality thing has been really pressing my thoughts.

It's no secret that my husband and I have been struggling with finances. I've been more wondering how come when it comes to finances and making wise decisions for our future and our finances that common sense seems to fight against faith. What I mean is that we've been believing for income and finances for sometime now. There was a point when I was thinking, " When is the point that reality of our financial status overcomes the faith that we're trying to walk in?" The struggle weighed on me quite heavily. Knowing that we weren't going to make it much further in the situation that we were in. But God!

I've recently been offered a part time job and part of me was saying, "This is the hand of God directly answering our prayers." and on the other hand part of me thinks, "No, this is just taking your finances into your own hands." I've come to believe that the latter is the lie.

Proverbs 31:13-16 says, "She looks for wool and flax, and works with her hands in delight. She is like merchant ships; she brings her food from afar. She rises while it is still night and gives food to her household, and portions to her maidens. She considers a field and buys it from her earnings she plants a vineyard."

To me this sounds like a woman who is just using the brain God gave her to better her family! God blessed her efforts in every area of her life. Her husband was blessed; her children were blessed. She was even blessed enough to give back to the needy. THIS is the attitude of royalty. This is what God is pouring into my heart, and removing thoughts that argue against His ways.

I find it funny how God has been gently leading me to take and keep this job but I've been fighting Him and "walking in faith." Sometimes I think God answers in the simplest of ways.

I guess I would challenge you to really ask God to search your ways like David prayed, and be blessed in the "mysterious" ways that God will change your mindsets.

God is good! He provides for our every need. Trust and hope in God no matter what your poverty mindset may be. Let God wash over those thoughts and plant His thoughts into your heart! Be encouraged God is taking care of you! His word says, "All things work for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28) ALL things! Even your meager finances are made to glorify Him! We can worship Him knowing that everything is going to work out. Even when it doesn't look like it. All things ~ that's a good word right there!

Kingdom Ethics Reflections

I learned many things over the semester from the Kingdom Ethics class, but the thing that stands out the most to me is how they contrast the difference between base convictions, principles, and rules. Base convictions are like core values, and for Kingdom Ethics they are based solely off of God's character. Example: God is love, God only does good, or God values all life. These base convictions govern our principle. For instance since God is love, then we also should have loving all people as one of our principles. And if God values all life, then we too must hold life a sacred. Out of our principles come our rules. Example: If we value all life, then we must oppose murder on any level as it destroys life. Understanding the relationship between base convictions, principles, and rules has made me more aware of the choices I make and the reasons I make them.

Reading this book has assisted me in being able to fully articulate what I believe about ethics and why.

Pain With Purpose

Pain without purpose erodes our confidence and ultimately crushes our hopes.Pain WITH purpose creates a vision that sets us up for triumph.

It's What I Cannot Live Without!

What would I do without this school? That is an easy question because this school has made into who I am right now! The presence of God is so thick throughout classes and the mouths of our greatly loved pastors and teachers! More and more of you God!!! COME ON!

From a little over a year ago I had no idea what God had in store for me! I am now able to heal people, I am able to bless people, I am able to help people, I am financially secure, I am healthy, I am forgiven, and I am blessed! Only these things can happen through Jesus! The Father sent His son to die for us because He saw something so valuable in us worth dying for!

Heaven is open over us and it is now not just an option to reach up and grab healing, or any other resource, but it is a lifestyle that I commit to live up to! I declare this to be a contagious lifestyle!

Thank you Father in Heaven for bringing your kingdom down and making us princes and princesses!

-Jon Stotts 2nd year Firebrand

What If the Church Fell in Love?

What if the church fell in love? How would we change? What if we removed all of our shaming bumpers stickers about what we perceive as cultural ills and channeled all of that noise into real, supernatural effort to love? How would our message change if Heaven’s Love became our love?

Would we stop threatening the world with catastrophe? Would Jesus’ Word from John 3:16 through 18 sound different to us if we, the church actually fell in love? How would our message change if Kingdom Love became our love?

Would we be far less interested in end times theories that ramp up the pressure of getting ourselves motivated to serve God? Would authentic, passionate love of and for God be enough to ignite our labors? Would wildly loving Christians be far more interesting signs of the times than earthquakes and wars? Would sacrificial love born out of God’s bountiful heart into the lives of Christians be much more intriguing than who the next candidate is for “Anti-Christ of the Year”?

Do we know what spirit we are of when we are in any way pleased or interested in bad things happening to bad people? If hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, diseases and calamities fit into our definition of how unhappy God is have we truly calculated the damage we do to the character of the Father and the true love of Jesus Christ? Have we read Luke 9:51-56 with Christ’s core value of radical love burning in our minds?

Does our definition of love require God to be angry and unsatisfied? What role does fear and punishment play in our revelation of God, especially in the face of Jesus, who told us that seeing Him is seeing the Father? Does our definition of love drain the Gospel of real power? Does our definition of love weaken and possibly neutralize the very Word of God which we adamantly require the world to believe? Are we experts in theology and novices in love?

What would happen if the church fell in love?

I’m just asking questions.