The current economic perceptions, and who's responsible...

I had an interesting dream this morning:

I was with lots of people at a very beautiful hotel. It had columns of solid gold in the front. I saw a close friend of mine drive up in a Wonder Bread delivery truck. As I looked at the truck, I saw it roll over maybe three complete times to the right and then maybe two complete times to the left. The truck was getting pretty beat up at that point and getting flimsier and flimsier. Another friend thought we should take the truck to the back of the hotel but I knew it had to go to the front. As I started taking the truck to the front of the hotel, I looked at the friend who was the driver and said, "The more the Lord tries to get your hand off this, the more you try to attach your fears to it."

I believe that this dream shows that the Lord Himself is clearly causing the economic turmoil in the world today. Know this, He is doing this, along with other reasons, in order to get His people to take their trust off of their own ability to provide for themselves and to turn their trust to Him.

I also believe that the more the Lord shakes, the more we tighten out grip on what we do have and the more fear we operate in. THIS IS NOT GOOD!!

If we can really embrace the Lord's heart in these matters, then we will then be "in front of the hotel." I believe that the hotel represents true Kingdom provision and that it promises us deep and abiding rest and safety if we but trust in the Lord for all our needs.

You know, this isn't really deep revelation. It is simply pointing us to what is already documented in the Bible. Matthew 6 and II Corinthians 9 address this directly but we really don't believe it. Why else would be spend so much time and effort chasing after these worldly things when they are strictly prohibited in Scripture??

Remember what missionary Jim Eliott said?? "He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose."

The "Economy" and What Should We Do???

A few weeks ago I was praying about what was happening about the stock market and the Lord spoke something to me very clearly. He said,

"Honorable men need fear not."

I looked up the meaning of "honorable" and got this:

"In accordance with or characterized by principles of honor."

So, what is "honor?"

"Honesty, fairness, or integrity in one's beliefs and actions."

So, an "honorable" person is one whose actions are governed by honesty, fairness and integrity.

I had an interesting dream this morning. In the dream I was speaking with a very, very wealthy businessman I know. I told him that some workers that worked for me are now making $200,000 per year (a dream, unfortunately, and not a reality.) The wealthy businessman freaked out and had a conniption fit, yelling and screaming at me, "Why do they have to make that much money!!! Are you crazy!!!" In the dream, a peace came over me and I said, "Why is it OK for YOU to make that much money and not OK for THEM?????"

I believe that the most essential aspects of this disruption in the stock market are:

1. To get Christians to separate (forcibly, if necessary) from a reliance on the world's economic systems, and to put their reliance on God alone, and
2. To pry dishonorable men's hands off of the wealth of the nation.

Notice that when the Lord told me "Honorable men need fear not" He didn't say, "Christians need fear not", or "Unbelievers need to fear." His focus here is on honorable and dishonorable, NOT Christian or non-Christian.

I've known many Christians who weren't particularly honorable people and many non-Christians who were very honorable. I've also know many honorable Christians and dishonorable non-Christians.

So, what should we do?

1. We need to learn to live by faith, not by our trust in 401(k)'s, IRAs, commodities, etc. God may allow us to have all of these but the moment we trust in them ahead of trusting in God, we separate ourselves from Him.
2. We need to give more. Period. This is all part of honesty, fairness and integrity. Are we these things if we have plenty while others suffer? What does this giving look like? Believe me, this is the easy part. The most organic, authentic, real giving is the giving we do that makes a difference in the lives of the people we come into contact with in our day-to-day lives.

One last point for tonight. In the words of Ronald Reagan, "Don't confuse the stock market with the economy." No matter what happens with the stock market, apples will still grow, cows will still give milk, oil will come out of the ground and the sun will still shine. Our "economy" is not this false demonically-inspired gambling and speculation venture call the stock market. It's about the hard work and talents of the people and the incredible and vast resources of this great country.

On Friday, October 10, 2008, a Wall Street stockbroker was interviewed on CNN. He said, "There is way too much fear in the market. We HAVE to get the fear out of the market so we can get back to greed." I'm not kidding about that. If this statement doesn't pull the blinders off of all of our eyes about the market I don't think anything ever will.

May the Lord enlighten the eyes of our hearts so we may see truly what is true.

Christian Gatherings and the Second Commandment

I've grown very hungry for deeper, more committed, love relationships centered around the Kingdom of God. I've been particularly stirred by Matthew 22:37-39:

And He said to him,"' You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' "This is the great and foremost commandment. "The second is like it, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' "On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets."

We've spent, rightly so, much of our lives focusing on the first commandment. Yet, how much fullness of the second commandment do we actually experience, to the degree in which the Lord intends, in our day-to-day lives? This burns in me every day, especially when I see how so many sheep stray for the lack of a shepherd.

The phrase that really sticks with me is "The second is like it". I looked the phrase up in my handy-dandy Bible software and saw that the Greek work for "is like it" connotes that there is so much similarity with the first commandment that the only difference is the order in which we are to do them.

The commandments are homogenous, like milk and cream permanently mixed together. In fact, the word is "homoios". In other words, yes, we are to love God first, but we can't really fulfill the first commandment until the second is burned into us so completely as to have the first and second commandments blur into indistinction.

The other scripture that keeps my tailfeathers on fire is Ezekiel 34. I won't repeat it all here but it's essentially about the judgment that will come against bad shepherds. I don't want to be a bad shepherd, and since all of you are shepherds as well, I know that you don't either. Read Ezekiel 34 and you'll see what I mean.

OK, so what should Christian gatherings be all about? Here are some bullet points:

• Loving community
• Simple worship
• Ministry one to another
• "Everybody plays"
• Missional commitment to our community

Each of these bullet points deserve much elaboration but let me put them in abbreviated terms, one-by-one.

Loving Community

To be in a group of people who are fundamentally committed to one another, not just on Sunday mornings but any time necessary. To be in a group of people who share their lives, to a small degree or to a big degree, outside the four walls of the church. To be in a group of people that you know you can count on in times of distress, pain, sorrow, anguish, despair. To be in a group a people with whom you can share triumphs, joys, new seasons of life, love.

Simple Worship

To move back to what many of us knew in the "old days" of the Vineyard. Just one or a few people playing guitars, keyboards, djembes (please, no tambourines :-), doing simple songs of worship to the Lord. Not "professional" because this is just another word for "elite". In this case, "simple" equals "accessible". Maybe sometimes we'll have to put up with someone singing off-key, playing out of tune, etc., but if it's good enough for God it should be good enough for us.

Ministry one to another

Seeing the exercise of the gifts of the Spirit of God for the purpose of strengthening, enlightening, encouraging the people of God.

"Everybody plays"

Every believer having the opportunity to be used by God in any (not necessarily "every") group meeting. Not oriented to a "pulpit" ministry but to a "populist" ministry. In the words of Bob Jones, no "Nicolaitan" spirit having separation between "clergy" and "laity".

Missional committment to our community

To not be satisfied with focusing on ourselves but to be absolutely deliberate in opening up our hearts, minds and lives to the needy IN OUR OWN MIDST first and then outward from there ("To Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth"). Being meaningful in our own community to the point that, if we disappeared, our community would be devastated.

Lastly, let me be very up-front with all of you when I say that it is my desire that these gatherings draw together like-minded people who can develop MUTUAL loyalty, to one another and to the cause of Christ in our community. That we would see this combine both the corporate gathering and the smaller cell gathering, as indistinct pieces of one whole and that we would see many divergent peoples come together, not out of heirarchy, but out of loving committment to God and to each other.

So much more to be said but I hope that this note gives you a broad brushstroke outline of what I am going to do. I invite comment from all of you.

Love, Peace, Grace,

Bill

Prosperity and Adversity, who is the author???

Here is an interesting scripture:

In the day of prosperity be happy, but in the day of adversity consider-- God has made the one as well as the other so that man may not discover anything {that will be} after him. Ecclesiastes 7:14 (NAS)

I'm stuck on the first part, that God has made both prosperity AND adversity. So there, Word of Faith people! There is so much nonsense being spread around the Body of Christ that we DESERVE prosperity BECAUSE we are God's people. What a selfish, arrogant and ignorant worldview. By definition it says that if one isn't living prosperously they they can't be one of God's people. Ridiculous.

We must, must, must move away from this entitlement mentality and see the world for what it is: a junk yard, with all-too-brief times of glorious adventures.

Getting started

So, here's my first blog. I've been putting this off for a long time but decided to go ahead and get started blogging. Why? Well, blogging is the perfect vehicle from bringing out little tidbits or lengthy missives, so why not?

What's been stirring around in my noodle? For several years I've been increasingly focused on love. Love is the most basic thing a Christian is called to but we spend so much of our time doing everything but loving each other. Maybe we should just drop everything for a while and see if we can learn to love.

John 13:35 says "By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another". He doesn't say, "they will know you are Christians by the candidate you back in the next election", nor does he say, "they will know you are Christians by the church you attend." He says that ALL will know who you follow based on who you love.

Interesting...