In response to a post on the other blog, Father Charles wrote the following:
Thanks for pointing out the pithy paragraph in the newsletter. I had skimmed the article and missed that point. The Episcopal Church leadership is oblivious to the problems they have created. They are convinced of their rightness - believing the rest of us are unenlightened. So convinced of their rightness, they believe the world will be a kinder and gentler place when everyone accepts the sexual orientation and practices of gays, lesbians, bisexual, and transgendered persons as God-given and blessed gifts from heaven.
These people are so crazy, they think our brothers and sisters in the Global South are really the problem - and not the Muslims who are persecuting the Church in locales like Nigeria. Since the revisionists are universalists, they couldn't care less about hindering the gospel witness in Africa. They will just keep loving and accepting everyone - except those who disagree with them - until we all just learn to get along. They actually believe radical Muslims who are working to impose Sharia law on the entire world will eventually be won over by their love and open-mindedness. Love will win out in the end.
It just boggles my mind. When I try to intellectually understand how they think, it still comes down to a strong delusion. No amount of evidence reaches them. A friend from seminary - and lesbian priest - told me with resignation, "We gays are going to the Cross for the rest of you. We have to bear the suffering of Christ to open up the Church - to make it safe for everyone. The Church will never be a safe place for anyone until it is a safe place for us." There you have it in a nutshell.
While I was attending GTS in NYC, Archbishop George Carey visited the campus. He briefly greeted our student body in the Refectory. We were thrilled to lay eyes on the Archbishop of Canterbury - all except for the gay students who hated him for his public statements supporting the historic Christian position on sexuality. One gay student - who was living in student housing with his life partner - whispered to a few of us close to him, "That vitriolic old man!!! I'd like to spit on him!!!" Well, so much for light, love, and tolerance. This gay couple "divorced" about graduation time. I never heard the details - but at least no one spit on the ABC that day.
Even when I want to get angry with the revisionists, I step back and realize they are not actually the problem. They are at least true to their confused convictions. The real culprits are the many people on the pews who are content with a watered-down substitute gospel that has no life-transforming power. The abandonment of apostolic faith is masked by beautiful liturgies and prayers - mostly reinterpreted to mean something other than what they say. This slide into apostasy didn't happen suddenly with the election of a gay bishop. In humility, I have to remember how much truth I was willing to compromise in order to "fit in.” I repeatedly hear priests who have left The Episcopal Church talk about the sudden sense of freedom - as though their minds were out from under a cloud. What they are describing is more than resolved emotional tension. We have stepped out of a demonically inspired system that exerted a constant spiritual pressure against the truth of God's word. You can't tell how oppressed and compromised you have been until you step out from under that spiritual force. Then you realize how much you were impacted by it.
Some traditional strands of Anglicanism fool themselves into blaming prayerbook revisions for the slide away from the truth. In their minds, if we would just get back to the Elizabethan BCP, there wouldn't be any room for these heresies. I have to wonder, what planet do these people live on? As beautiful as these liturgies are, they contain a fatal flaw–high liturgies developed out of a Church that had abandoned apostolic power. The ancient fourfold order of the liturgy comes from the glory days of the Church in the book of Acts. But the complex liturgies - built around a model of priests offering Mass as a sacrifice on behalf of the Church - substituted for the manifested power and presence of the Holy Spirit in and through the gathered people of God.
It is difficult to lead a fully charismatic Mass because the set forms of liturgies were designed in a vacuum of spiritual power. These forms become the norm of Christian worship when no one expected the manifested power of God to show up. Think about the great church in Byzantium - now a mosque - with the huge image of Christ Pantocrator enthroned in glory - dispassionate like a lofty Roman emperor - seated above mundane things - looking out in dispassionate judgment over the affairs of the empire. It is all about images of transcendence and other-worldliness - while wrapping up Christ in imperial garb to undergird the divine right of the Roman emperor to rule over the affairs of Church and State. In these images, God is beyond human feelings. Lip-service is given to the Incarnation. Where is the Christ touched by the feelings of our infirmities - the merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God? Church councils and theologians had replaced miracle-workers and prophets.
Back when the power of God was actively manifest in the Church, the bishop simply stood at the holy table and prayed from his heart - as he was moved by the Spirit. The fourfold order of gathering, hearing and responding to the word of God, breaking bread, and being sent out into the world - that was there - but not the elaborate prayers and forms that make us think God is dynamically at work while nothing much ever happens - except for an occasional mystical experience. It appears to me that God likes the messiness of charismatic expression. God has hidden stuff from the wise and prudent - and revealed it to babe. I can't think of a high-impact revival that didn't offend someone's sensibilities. The Episcopal Church - like most mainline denominations - has lost its way because they have never had their world-view impacted by biblical truth. They have interpreted the bible in light of their own experience of divine absence instead of Real Presence. If we don't press through into the grace of God - and begin to manifest the kingdom of God in power - then there will be no revival in the land - just occasional mystical experiences. But the culture will remain untouched.
Monday, December 31, 2007
Apostosy in the Church
Vapid Archbishop
Father Don wrote a comment on the other blog to which Father Charles responded as follows:
Father Don wrote: When I first read our Archbishop's Christmas sermon the day it came out, I could not believe my eyes. I said to my wife, "What is the man thinking! Here we are in the midst of this great Anglican crisis and he comes out with a message which sounded like some college sophomore who has lost his faith."
That message was the last thing he needed to do at this moment when our church is coming all apart precisely because of bishops who have lost their way. I sure hope he will have the good sense to resign and do it quickly. He is the wrong person at the wrong time The Archbishop of Canterbury was so far from my thoughts that I didn't even notice his Christmas sermon. Do you get any sense of what might be happening in his psyche? He must live in some academic fantasy world.
Father Charles responded:
The Archbishop of Canterbury was so far from my thoughts that I didn't even notice his Christmas sermon. Do you get any sense of what might be happening in his psyche? He must live in some academic fantasy world.
As I have watched these revisionist bishops, their escalation of insanity reminds me of biblical passages of God's judgment - when people are given over to reprobate minds that have lost any ability for discernment. They can no longer distinguish truth from error. God said He would give them over to strong delusion. And there is the interesting OT story where a spirit comes forward in the heavenly courts and offers to go be a lying spirit in the mouth of the false prophets - to lead the king of Israel to his destruction.
I think we are witnessing something like this in Rowan and others like him. Because of the spiritual positions entrusted to these bishops, there is a higher level of warfare - of which they are totally unaware. These guys and gals get caught up in delusions that must be the work of deceiving spirits. My hope is that this is God's way of manifesting their true natures - false shepherds - wolves in sheep's clothing. High level spiritual warfare is advancing through false religions - and this substitute Christianity is powerless before it. When bishops ought to be defending the faith and calling hearts to the Cross and transforming in Christ, we get handed a replay of Rodney King's "Why can't we all get along?"
In the face of this kind of idiocy, I am hard-pressed not to interpret this as end-time apostasy - the great falling away that precedes the coming of Christ. All this must signal something really wonderful on the spiritual scene.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Will Someone Please Sort Modern Prophecy For Us!
Fr. Don e-mailed Fr. Charles,
I don’t know about you, but it seems there is a tsunami of prophecies being issued forth–so many in fact that I have stopped reading them. You know what I would like to see? I would like to see some people in Christian universities, who need to publish, do what academics do when there is a flood of research on some subject.
First, professors who like to collate material will go through all the research and synthesize it for the rest of us. Other types of professors will survey their colleagues and have them vote for the research they think has the best quality. Other professors look through all the literature and count the number of times a piece of research is cited by other researchers. Finally, there are some who follow up on research, replicating it to see if it holds up under scrutiny. These type of publications really make a contribution.
Wouldn’t it be great if some Christian professors would collate and synthesize what the prophets are saying, picking up themes? Then others could survey the field to ask various prophets who are publishing or giving conferences, to rank order their colleagues. Someone else could survey the prophets and ask them which ones of their colleagues are they reading. Finally, someone needs to follow-up the prophecies and see who was accurate, for example, those who prophesied in 2005 with titles such as “What will God do in 2006?”
If I were a university professor right now and needed a publication for my advancement, I would be tempted to do the type of research I would like to see. If someone doesn’t do something soon, the whole enterprise is going to become one big blur.
Seriously Seeing the Seers
Father Charles replies: I share your feelings. We have a great need for Pentecostal/Charismatic scholarship of the kind you suggest. I have several thoughts about this need.
First, there is wide divergence of opinion within the Pentecostal/Charismatic world regarding the role of spiritual gifts and special manifestations. I was shocked to read recent studies that nearly half of people who consider themselves Pentecostal/Charismatic have no interest in speaking in tongues. Many renewal churches are adopting a seeker-friendly approach that pushes spiritual manifestations to the back corner.
Second, I am noting significant differences of opinion among the teachers and prophets that I personally admire. Note Fr Don's post about the recent controversy against Patricia King. Instead of serious study of special phenomena, they are dismissed as New Age syncretism.
Third, Pentecostal scholarship is on the increase - with Pentecostalism still being the new kid on the theological block - but I am noticing that some Pentecostal scholars are embarrassed by the wilder side and are uncomfortable with Pentecostal manifestations. They fear that this wilder side of the movement reinforces the religious stereotypes that have characterized historic Pentecostalism. Such scholars bring a bias against such manifestations when they should be the very people leading the forefront of study.
Fourth, this field of study is a slippery slope. I recall a seminary lecture by an ascetical theologian. She stated that theologians have been reluctant to accept ascetical theology as a valid academic study because it is impossible to study as a dispassionate observer. How do you study mystical states of consciousness without experiencing them for yourself? I recall a book on glossolalia research - wish I could cite the author and title, but it was in a college library back in the early 1980's. The researcher visited Pentecostal churches around the globe - making video and audio recordings of people practicing tongues in public services. The researcher was suddenly caught over "into the Spirit" and saw a vision of something akin to a great waterfall pouring down. This unexpected shift from normal consciousness frightened the researcher - who didn't want that to happen again. Real spiritual manifestations ought to be catching. Scholars, like Jack Deere, have started to investigate prophecy and fallen into the creek. Deere, a former dispensational Southern Baptist, is now in the main stream of prophetic ministry and apostolic restoration. Collecting the data seems to do something to people that makes them lose their objectivity.
I do see a real concern for authenticity and accuracy being expressed among the prophetic people that I read. People like Mike Bickle have worked hard to get prophetic people to move away from danger areas of time prediction, prophesying important moves, etc - the high-risk areas of prophetic ministry. When I minister to charismatic groups outside my Sunday morning congregation, I do a great deal of personal prophetic ministry. If I didn't receive regular feedback about accuracy from those receiving the ministry, I don't think I could get up and even try. I have heard so much cheap, fake prophecy that I have been tempted to "despise prophesying". Why do I keep going with it? The truth is I agree with something Jack Deere often says. There are lots of cheap imitations out there. But there is gold in the hills that is worth the effort to mine it out. When the real gift is experienced, it takes your breath away. Nothing edifies the Church like the real gift of prophecy.
Maybe someone at the Renewal Studies doctoral program at Regent University could put together a dissertation. If I were enrolled in the program, I would consider doing it myself. I would like to hear prophets reviewed by other prophets with proven histories of blessings. Paul says the spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets - let onc prophesy and the others judge.
Is it God or the Enemy
Father Don E-mailed Father Charles,
In last night’s message at church, the teacher pointed out instances in which the cause of the people’s hardships actually came from the Lord. His main Scripture was: Jeremiah 24:5
The image I saw was my treadmill. I can slowly crank up the incline higher and higher. As it rises, the resistance causes stronger and stronger leg muscles. The idea that God might be doing the same action was not hard to believe.
The teacher added that sometimes then, tough times are initiated by God and some times by the Devil. Unfortunately, the teacher stopped there, leaving the big question as to how we can discern which is God and which is the enemy. Do you or any readers out there have some ideas?
Father Don
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Exorcism and Deliverance Prayer Continued
As Fr. Don and I posted below, we were both shocked by the poor treatment of exorcism by Hannity. I have gone through different phases of thought about exorcism and deliverance. Here are some of the things I believe I have learned.
When I became a Christian, I was heavily oppressed by interaction with demonic spirits in seances. While I thought this spiritual practice was benign - even helpful - it was a counterfeit. Trying to find God through direct experience, I became intangled with bondages of fear that could only be released through deliverance prayer.
I emphasized the need for deliverance prayer in much of my early ministry. At a certain point, I realized that deliverance prayer alone cannot produce long-lasting change. In addition to evicting troubling spirits, my mind needed renewing through biblical, redemptive truth. So, I explored psychology as a means to understand why I was the way I was. Some of the most life-transforming truths came to me through that exploration. Every psychological insight became a place of meeting with God as I invited Him to work in the depths of my being. I swung too far in that direction and began to de-emphasize the role of the demonic and spiritual warfare.
The last few years have been a time of digging ancient wells in my spirit. Many truths that had informed my earlier years of ministry have sprouted again and are releasing spiritual life in me. One of those ancient wells is deliverance prayer. Over the last several years, I walked through some difficult times in ministry that I honestly thought were going to kill me. It was only my personal experiences of the presence of Christ Holy Spirit that kept me alive. I felt layers of emotional and spiritual toxicity building up on my - like layers on my skin. It was like have layers of spiritual sewage wrapped around me without any way to get it off. I hoped the changes I made in ministry would bring the inner release I knew I needed - but they didn't. Some days I thought I would just have to live with it.
That changed when I turned back to deliverance prayer. I attended a Kathie Walters/Bob Jones conference - and didn't even want to be there. Sitting there in the building that night, I was secretly wishing I hadn't come. My mood was dark and heavy - and I felt that I didn't have a friend in the world. I sat as far away from others as I could. To my dismay, a lady who had heard about my ministry in the Spirit came running over to me. She is one of those rare individuals who only have an "on" switch. This sister in Christ archs constantly with spiritual power when she is in the Spirit. I thought, "She is going to mess with me - and I don't want to hug and be nice. I want to be left alone." There is not much you can do with a Christian like her other than let them do what they are going to do and hope they stop soon and leave you alone.
Anyway, she came over to me in a state of spiritual intoxication. She grabbed me around the neck and began to stagger. Just when I was wishing seriously that she would just fall over in the floor and leave me alone - or go off and arch with spiritual power around someone who would actually appreciate it - I felt the power of God shoot through me. As the power of the Spirit passed through me from this lady, I felt a band break off my mind. For the first time in weeks, I felt the peace and love of God. I realized in that moment that my psychological mood had a spiritual root - an attack from an evil spirit that I mistook for a bad mood. The power of God broke that off me and I was able to receive. This opened up a spiritual door in me to which I could not find the key alone. In the course of that weekend, I was touched a second time. Layers of spiritual oppression were literally knocked off me as my body convulsed under the impact. When the power of God finally lifted off me, I felt those layers of accumulated spiritual oppression and bondage break off me - down to my very skin. I was astonished at how much spiritual oppression I had contracted - and understood why my little faith pep talks had not lifted the cloud that had accumulated over my life.
Deliverance prayer - casting out demons and breaking demonic bondage - brings the kingdom of God into our lives. It lays the foundation for renewing the mind - and sometimes renewing the mind breaks the bondage be removing the house that the enemy inhabited.
I have seen many mistakes in deliverance prayer over the years - and am sure I have made plenty. Yet without deliverance prayer, I would still be bound. I know there are still unrenewed parts of my mind. Daily I deal with the issue of sin through the power of the Cross. But I know that evil targets us - evil that comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. Jesus gave authority to his disciples to cast out demons. Without that ministry, some strongholds of the devil will not be removed - including some sickness and disease. In spite of the mistakes and misunderstanding, it is imperative that the Church claim and exercise this important ministry of Jesus. It is not the domain of specially trained and licensed exorcists - but the commission of all believers.
Fox TV's Hannity Blows Exorcism Story
Father Don e-mailed Father Charles August 10.
Just saw Hannity on Fox showing some exorcisms that were blundered. The Roman priest told Hannity that all those examples were illegitimate. They were pretty sloppy. I think Hannity concluded that the Roman knew what he was talking about.
Father Charles Responded to Father Don
I saw Hannity's show and thought he did exorcism a great injustice. Francis MacNutt wrote a compelling article some time back that demonstrated what the wrong approach the Roman Church has taken regarding exorcism. Their approach is preventing lots of people from receiving much needed help through simple deliverance prayer. One major problem is the belief that the exorcist loses a bit of his soul each time he comes into direct confrontation with the demonic. Jesus said nothing about that kind of crazy thinking.
Instead, He said deliverance was children's bread - and that casting out demons by the Spirit, or finger, of God brings the kingdom of God into manifestation. Far from depleting us or causing us to lose pieces of our soul when we minister deliverance, the kingdom of God comes in such abundance that we are all advanced deeper into the life of the Spirit and God's manifest presence. The Roman notion is in error and Hannity showed the worst junk out there. The insinuation was that those who make mistakes in deliverance prayer are actually false prophets - and the Roman exorcists are the real thing. I was so offended by his ignorance, I considered writing him - but decided to not waste my time. Perhaps that would be something worth writing about on the blog.
1. Blessings,
Charles+
Father Don replied to Father Charles,
Thanks. By the way, this past week, Hannity’s blog was asking for information from those who had actually spoken in tongues. I decided to send him my experiences documented on my other blog. After filling out all his forms to be allowed to make comments on Hannity’s blog, and even being accepted, the thing would not let me in. I kept praying that God would help me. Finally, I received the distinct sense that God did not want me to.
After seeing how badly Hannity mangled exorcism, I can see that God was blocking me from casting out my pearls to a serious oink oink.
Don
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
A Brush With Principalities & Powers
One of the prophetic tasks before the Church is the healing of the nations. The sins of the past often leave wounds on the earth. As we move deeper into the release of God's glory, we anticipate the day when the knowledge of the glory of the Lord will cover the earth as water covers the sea. A close friend, and fellow Anglican, shared two special experiences with me today. I have known her for a number of years and often experienced the validity of her seer gift. My hope is that her experiences will encourage you to open your eyes in the realm of the Spirit. The post is a bit long, but don't miss the God & the Mosquito story at the end.
On a recent Saturday, my family and I – and a couple of our friends, BW and MC - went day-camping near our Rocky Mountain home. We spent the day hiking, setting a new geo-cache (geo-caching is a game of going treasure hunting using a GPS unit), visiting, and eating really, really gourmet food prepared over a campfire. After supper, we all helped clean up, pack up, and reload the cars. BW and I both decided that she and I weren't supposed to go home yet, so I suggested that my family and MC go home in our car and BW and I would go home eventually in her car.
After they left, BW and I sat in the two camp chairs they'd left, sipping our drinks. While BW worked on some knitting, we talked about spiritual stuff. She suddenly looked up from her knitting and asked me to open my spiritual eyes and see if I noticed anything about the atmosphere of the camp. Trusting BW’s prophetic gift, I looked by faith through the eyes of my spirit. I was surprised to see that the spirit of our camp - happy, cheerful, "sunny" – now felt strangely unsettled, like it was in transition. I shared what I had seen and BW nodded her head and said that the change was because the sun was setting and the earth itself - in that place - was transitioning from day to night. We continued talking.
I was still in the Spirit and was startled to see a sudden movement out of the corner of my eye – something that looked like a large black dog over past where our campfire had been. I whipped my head around for in surprise. I was sure I had seen something moving – but now there was nothing. The experience left me jumpy. Moments later, the bag that had melting ice in it shifted and at the noise I nearly jumped out of my chair. The breeze had been blowing all day, with some substantial gusts, but at one gust, BW stood up and announced, "It's time to go." I was suddenly overwhelmed with mind-searing fear. I've felt this same "flavor" of fear before: once along the shore of a peaceful lake right before a sudden storm in which several trees did their best to fall on me. I had also experienced it on a few other occasions – in different geographical areas. Now there it was again – intense, mind-numbing fear and dread!
Why am I scared??" I asked BW.
"What do you see?" she responded.
"I don't know! I'm too scared to look."
"Lower your defenses."
"I can't. I'm too scared."
"Here, touch me. I’m here with you," BW said, giving me her hand.
"I can't. I'm too scared."
"Receive strength from me,” encouraged BW.
"I can't! I can't!" I'm nearly hysterical at this point.
"RECEIVE FROM ME!!!" BW cried out.
I take BW's hand, and feel the spiritual force of her prayers for me. With renewed strength, I begin to force myself past the fear enough to begin lowering my emotional walls. In the spirit, I see a single candle flame, unflickering, surrounded by pitch blackness. I tell her what I see.
"Now see what is in the campsite." BW said. I begin to see in the spirit again as I look outward from where I'm standing, there are two very tall, very masculine angels standing behind me, one at each of my shoulders. Around us there is a ring of angels, except for in front of me, in the direction of the hill where we had laid the geo-cache. To my horror, all I can see there at the top of the hill is a large black shadow dog, very menacing, bristling and standing at attention, watching us, poised for attack. I start to tell BW what I see, but she interrupts and tells me to look deeper. I look again, and this time I see someone standing in that "empty" space in front of me, where I could see no angels: Jesus himself was there, between me and what I knew to be a hell hound, like the ones I had once seen in another part of the mountains. I told BW what and who I saw, and what was up on the hill. "You're right. Now look deeper still." BW instructed.
I look even farther out, and this time I see that in addition to the inner circle of angels, there are multitudes of angels ringed around behind them, filling the valley over which the wind had come. I could still feel the malicious "voice" that traveled on the wind, and I could still see the hell hound up on the hill, but I knew we were protected. But then I began to worry because I could tell that more "things" were coming our way, and coming soon. "Protection's all well and good," I thought, "but what if we don't get into the car and get out of here soon enough? What if we take too long and our spiritual protection vanishes?"
Immediately I heard the very relaxed, very Jewish, very humorous voice of Jesus say, "Would you like to stay and roast some marshmallows first?" I burst out laughing. BW asks what I've seen, so I tell her Jesus' line about there being time for roasting marshmallows if I want to. We pack the camp chairs into her car, and I decide that if Jesus says there's time to roast marshmallows, there's certainly time to visit the outhouse before leaving camp. We then get into the car and head down the mountain road towards home. BW tells me to keep my spiritual eyes open over the land as we drive along.
At a certain point in the road, I hear the voices of many dead Indians, and tell BW. She is well-versed in local history and says, "Right here was the crossroads used by three tribes as they traveled on their seasonal migrations. That was their campsite. Keep looking in the spirit."
A few miles down the road, I suddenly hear and see family land dispute - bitter accusations of land theft. BW says, "That was the border of a ranch that was the cause of much violent and vicious land disputes between members of the family, about who owned what and who stole what. Keep looking in the Spirit."
We drive on. Now I feel slime. BW says, "There have been a lot of traffic deaths there, and a few murders. Keep looking."
Some miles farther, I feel stability and settledness. “That land has been homesteaded for many generations," BW told me.
We pull into a gravel parking lot off the side of the road. BW points to a man sitting up on the rocks. I tell her that he's OK; he's just trying to find himself. "You're right. Now look in the spirit and see if you receive anything about the place." It feels like a place of transition, of transfer, of comings and goings, of people making and changing alliances. I tell her this, and she says, "Yes. This is an area that’s been touched by a lot of transition, but look deeper." I reach out with the eyes of my spirit and immediately recoil in revulsion as I see a body dangling from the tree in front of us. "There was a lynching here!" I gasp. "Yes, at least one, during a labor dispute," BW confirms.
We drive further into town, driving wherever we feel led to drive. As we pass a woman getting into her car, I instantly know that she is profoundly sad. BW concurs, and we intercede for her as we drive on. We are approaching an intersection and I suddenly ask, "Why are we going to turn left when we get to the intersection?" MA, whose fingers were already on the turn signal, answers, "What do you see in the road straight ahead past the intersection?" I look and see a shadow creature barring the way. We drive past a grocery store, and I suddenly understand why I have never liked the place. I say, "That store is corrupt and has mob connections." "Oh, does it ever!" exclaimed BW.
We drive to my house and continue talking for awhile. I ask her what the evil "voice" on the wind at the campsite was, when the other breezes had not held any sense of menace. She explained that the other wind had been just wind, but that that wind had not been just wind. I asked what else it had been. "Just a faint brush of powers and principalities," she replied. I asked her if what I'd seen sniffing around beyond the campfire had been a hell hound. "Yes, that one was a lone one, though. The ones on the hill were a pack."
We start talking about animals, and what animal each of us most closely resembled in a spiritual sense. I talk about my connection to birds and horses. BW tells me that she loves hawks and eagles. She asks me how much of a "raptor" I think she is. I'm not sure, so she tells me to ask God for the answer. Feeling just a bit foolish, I ask. Suddenly I see Jesus laughing his head off. He says, "Tell her she's bird except for that part that's zebra." I know that there is no part of her that is zebra, so I protest. "No, go ahead and tell her she's part zebra. It's a joke. She'll get it." Feeling incredibly foolish now and way out on a limb, I deliver the message. She responds by putting on her most "vexed mother" face, shaking her finger up to heaven and mock-growling, "Lord!!! We’re going to have a talk about this later!!!" I still don't get the joke so I ask her what Jesus meant. She explains that it is an inside joke. Given her rather ample bosom, she said she sometimes joked in private that her bra size was "Z", since Z is the biggest letter, and that that makes her a "z-bra." With that, we pull into my driveway – both knowing our conversation is finished for now. How’s that for an interesting camping trip?
And finally, for a lighter, funnier spiritual tale for "dessert", here's one from today. My child and I went geo-caching with MC this afternoon. We had picked up burgers and fries at a drive-through for lunch and then headed out to the first geo-cache site. We found the parking area, parked, and then munched our lunches. I had the windows rolled down, and my child started to complain that I ought to shut the windows so no mosquitoes would get in. Not wanting to lose the fresh air, but also not wanting to get into a battle of wills, I lied and said that no mosquitoes would bother us because French fries act like citronella. My little one responded with a complaint that the fries were already eaten. I dug down into my pack and shared some of the last of mine. MC made a face at me for my obvious and shameless pulling of my child’s leg. At that precise moment, a single mosquito flew in my window, circled around my nearly empty box of fries, proceeded to land on the box and started trying to eat the grease from the fries. I looked at a stunned and amused MC. He looked at me, and I sighed and said, "OK, God. I get the point. You can send the mosquito away now." Instantly the mosquito took off and flew directly out my window. I then confessed that French fries do not in fact repel mosquitoes and that Mommy had been joking.go home eventually in her car.
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Sunday, April 29, 2007
This week I have to watch myself to keep out of PMS - prophetic mood swings. The stress of the death of our dear friend, Bonnie Kahn - founder and president of Agape International - coupled with the long week we spent with her ministry preparing for her funeral and the Sunday ministry following the funeral - drained all my reserve. This week I have been on automatic. A sore throat has been coming on all week. If I didn't have to go to church today to preside at the Eucharist and preach, I would stay home in bed.
When we are physically and emotionally tired, we have to be extremely careful. Our moods can affect our discernment and sense of God's presence. One important truth I have learned after many years of prophetic ministry is this: God is altogether good and faithful. As I keep my focus on the all-sufficiency of the Lord - his beauty, goodness and grace - I find strength to pick up my shield of faith and press on.
But if I turn my attention to the spiritual warfare, physcial exhaustion, or darker emotions - mistaking them for the vision of God's goodness - then my spiritual ministry picks up that tone or flavor. I know that I am going to need the grace of God today because I didn't get the mental and physical rest I actually needed this past week. But that grace will bear me through the day. Sometimes my very best preaching happens when I am this weak and tired. Maybe that is because I am too tired to care what someone else thinks about it and just speak from the heart. The Lord hasn't sent the sore throat and feeling of malaise, but my weakness always makes room for God's strength.
I wish today that I had heeded more of Jesus' admonition to his followers to come aside and rest. Parish life doesn't always allow for that - though I did keep a reduced schedule this week. But I know I am at a place where I have to heed it or really get sick with a severe sore throat and cold.
