You Are MEL

I don't remember many of my dreams. Let's be blunt here. I don't remember any of my dreams, so with this being the case, if I do remember something from a dream, it is important. I do not try to read into dreams what "I think" is being said. I trust God that if there is something coming from a dream that is from Him, He will reveal it.

Last night I had the most unusual dream I have ever had. It was a dream of a voice. No pictures, no visions, no images. Just a voice. It was very clear in what was said.

"I am the King........you are MEL."
The voice was addressing me.
The voice referred to himself as the KING (Please, no Elvis puns).
And decreed that I was MEL.
Problem was that I knew that He was not talking to just to me, but to the body of Christ at large.
I didn't see this in the dream, but I knew and was aware that I was surrounded by others and that we were dressed in chain mail armour with white tunics which bore a red cross. It was like what you see of the armies who went off to the Crusades. Like I said, I did not see this, I just knew it. Once again the voice spoke.
"I am the King.........you are MEL."

When I woke up, the phrase was still with me. "I am the King.......you are MEL."
I had no clue as to who or what MEL was. Mel Gibson? No, that's not right.
I went to my computer and did a word search for the name MEL.
It came up as Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory.
Here was the kicker. M.E.L. is defined or described as "An agent of change in a rapid paced world, setting the standards of measurement." Why would you need change in a world that is changing? What is an agent?
An agent is something that is introduced to bring about a predetermined effect.

I think we are being told that we, believer's / body of Christ, have been commissioned to do this. We are to be agents of change. We do not have the luxury of sitting by but are being introduced into the world to create a desired effect.
This is more than winning souls.
This is about making disciples.
Society has gone over the edge of moral decay.
There are those who work to change the laws in order to affect society in a political or economic way.
We have been called to take seriously Jesus' command to make disciples, not just win souls.
when you make disciples, you change the standard of measurement in that life as well as the environment around that person as the Holy Spirit is introduced.

In the Old testament, The Levites camped around the Tabernacle to protect the people from God.
We are called to camp at the gates of Hell to keep hell from destroying the people. If MEL sets the standards of measurement for the World and we have been designated as MEL then it makes sense when we read, "When the enemy comes in.............like a flood the Lord will raise up a standard."
Christ in us is the standard that is set before the world.
The world is without excuse if we will be who Christ calls us to be.

Be Salt.
Be Light.
Be the fragrance of Jesus in world that carries with it the stench of death.

God on you......

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The Ultimate Truth

Jesus loves me this I know

For the Bible tells me so

Little ones to Him belong

They are weak, but He is strong

Yes, Jesus loves me!

Yes, Jesus loves me!

Yes, Jesus loves me!

The Bible tells me so.

Sunday Morning Ramblin's

Reading from Psalm 107.
I keep finding myself stopping by this particular chapter from time to time.
Probably have taught more from 107 than any other chapter in Scripture.
It seems to speak of life with God and life (or the lack of) without God.

I think it is speaking to what is going on in the lives of people today in our country.
We are a nation that has bought into the notion that we can save ourselves from whatever comes our way.
Or at least the idea that the Federal Government can save us.
What happens when neither view is correct? That we cannot save ourselves or look to the government to be our savior.
I am a firm believer that we spend a lot of time praying for God to remove us, deliver us, restore us, take us out of, free us from, raise us above whatever event or situation we are facing.
This may not always be the case with God.

In verse 6 of Psalm 107 we read:
Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble and delivered them out of their distresses.
Sounds good, especially to our sense of self-preservation. But take a closer look at what is written.
The people cried out to God "in their trouble."
Smack dab in the middle of a situation that there was no answer for.
In the middle of a circumstance that had no solution, as far as the people could see, they cried out to God.
I'll buy that. So far the verse is right on target.
We have identified that we are in a "powerless" place where we cannot save ourselves.
Coming to that conclusion, we realize that only a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. That power being JESUS.
So, with everything we have, we cry out....HELLLLLLLLP!
Notice what the Scripture says.
"And He delivered them out of their distresses."
It doesn't say that He (Jesus) delivered them from the situation does it?
No!
It says that He delivered them out of their distresses. He brought peace to their hearts, souls, spirit, and mind. He delivered them out of the emotional turmoil and confusion that comes when we find ourselves in desperation.

We trust God and not our emotions.
We find the level place, the peaceful place that only God can give and then await His instructions.
Notice Verse 7:
"And He led them forth by the right way.........."
We have to be delivered from the emotional baggage in order to hear what to do.
We find this to be hard, because what we want is a pseudo-peace.
We want the situation to change so that we can find peace.
God says, "I will free you from the baggage and give you peace so you can follow Me through the situation."

Maybe this should be what we crave and cry out for more than deliverance.
God....deliver me from my own emotional baggage so I can follow you!
Think on this...


God on you.......
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Tomorrow Night

We will gather tomorrow night to worship.
To come together, as a group, and simply say, "Thank you God! For who you are."
We will not get caught up in the blessings we have been given.
We will not be dragged down by the events of our past.
We will focus for a brief period of time on God and him alone.

Our music will reflect who we are as a community of believer's.
It will sound like us.
It will stir our hearts as we move out into areas that, for some, are uncharted.
We will focus our hearts and our minds on God.
We will do so not for anything in return, but to simply to remember how blessed we are.

It has been two weeks since I have been here for the meeting and I can tell you that I have missed it terribly.
I have spoken in several places over the past couple of weeks but none compare to coming back here, my home, to be with the men and worship with them.
Thank you Lord for our place in your Kingdom.
May we win for the Lamb....
The rewards of his suffering.

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The Inner-net

How quick we are to embrace technology.
We do so and it becomes such a common place thing in our midst, that we forget what life was like before it was introduced.
Last night I sat and watched as the President spoke on the financial crisis.
When he finished, I got up to do some searching on the Internet.
The pundits had already posted their insight into what the President had said.
Seconds after he had finished, the info on his speech was going to the world over the Internet.
We forget about how it used to be.
We would have waited until the next day to read about it in the newspaper.
Or tuned in to the 10 p.m. newscast to see what they had to say. No longer though....
Blammo! It's there.

In an age of speed to disseminate information, true or false, we forget about the greatest source every given to mankind. The Bible.

Psalm 119:130 reads:
The unfolding of Thy words gives light. It gives understanding to the simple.
The unfolding.....
God's word is always being seen and taken into our spirits on new levels as we become students and "digest" or take the work into our souls and heart. It is the only book that I know of that when you read it, you can come back and read the same portion at a later date and see something new that wasn't revealed the first time you read it.

God's word gives light. It illuminates within us the dark places where we hide sin (or so we think). It gives us an opportunity to shed ourselves of motives, attitudes, behaviors that are contrary to God's path He has called us to walk. In other words, I am being changed, my character is being changed because of the Holy Spirit who brings this illumination to me.

In an age where information comes like a tidal wave, it is comforting to know that the words of Malachi have not been relegated as useless. "I am the LORD God! I do not change."
God is not outdated.
God is not irrelevant.
God is not a myth.
He is life.
He is peace.
He is the portion that fulfills your inner hunger.
A hunger that we have tried to feed with sex, drugs, money, power, greed....insert what ever you want. Only God can satisfy.
How can I say this?
Because He has done this for me.

God on you......

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Tuesday Night Thoughts

8:02 p.m.
Just finished preparing for the 9 p.m. Bible study.
Each teaching is an exercise in "Oh God, Oh God, Oh God. What do you want to say tonight?"
I have been holding this twice a week study since early 2004 and have seen God do some incredible things as we have met.

Tonight is teaching on following hard after God.
Reading in Exodus where the cloud of God's presence would settle over the Tabernacle and remain there until it was time to move.
I wondered what it was like being camped around the presence of God. No matter where you went in the camp you could not escape the presence of God. It stretched to the heavens. Cloud and shade by day, fire and warmth by night. Lighting up the inside of the tents with a red glow. How many drifted off to sleep with a view of God's presence etched in their minds? How long would it take for the presence of God to become common place? In the beginning of the trip out of Egypt walking in fear of God. Not wanting to lag behind or get ahead of the cloud, but trying to pace yourself and walk with the cloud.

How many became insensitive to this cloud and pillar of fire?
Giving no thought to who was in their midst.
"I'll let that crazy fellow, Moses, fool with the cloud. Hey! You remember when we were in Egypt......all the great food we had there. Don't get me started about this so called Promise Land...we aren't ever gonna see it. Moses brought us out here to die."
All the while the presence of God heard and saw what was going on in the camp.

The cloud was the leader, not Moses. The cloud moved, Israel packed up and followed. Probably not willingly either. "I just had the tent fixed like I really wanted it to be and now that cloud is moving and we got to pack up! Will it never end?"

The following of these thoughts of following Jesus and not my own understanding lead me to Luke Chapter 5 where Peter and others came into contact with Jesus. The guys have been on an all-nighter fishing trip. Caught nothing and here Jesus uses their boat for a floating pulpit to teach from. Upon finishing, Jesus tells them, "Put out to the deep water and let down your nets." The guys do so and catch the mother lode of fish. Verse 10 Jesus tells them, "You will catch men...you will be fishers of men."
Verse 11 is the kicker -- SO they pulled their boats up on shore, let everything to follow him.
We don't really believe they left everything, do we?
If that is the truth, then how do I excuse my lifestyle?
Am I called to leave everything?
Am I called to follow in like manner? Or do I spiritualize these verses by saying, "He only wants me to surrender everything by simply saying it. Being willing to do it, but he really isn't going to expect me to surrender everything. Does he?

I think He does.
Is this where I sell everything and leave my home? Only if you have a clear directive from Him to do so. But it is necessary to leave old friends and places to follow him.
I have given up much to follow him.
I won't say that I have given willingly either, sometimes I turn loose because I know I have no other choice.
But what I have been given in return is beyond my comprehension.
A deeper love for God.
A more clear vision of where I am going.
A deeper love for my family and brothers and sisters in Christ.
A shoulder to lean on and walk with as He guides me.
I make no excuses or want to give the impression that it has been tootsie pops and cinnamon rolls, it has been a hard road, but never, never, never, has God forsaken me or left me to fend for myself.
That is why I am leaving all to follow Him.

Praise God!
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Rain On Dry Ground

I got the opportunity to go and speak at a Celebrate Recovery over the week end. Seems that for now, I have grace to accept these invitations. As I was preparing and studying, I felt God say, "Get ready for rain." The best I could come up with was that he was going to do something at the meeting I was going to.

When I arrived I shared what I had heard with the leadership and asked if it was o.k. for me to minister in a way that they might not be used to. They gave me the authority and I knew that everything was in place.

Sure enough after I finished speaking we moved into clinic time (John Wimber's word for ministry). I invited everyone who wanted prayer to come to the front. There were 35-40 people who came up. I began praying over each of them and as I moved among them, you could see the Holy Spirit coming on them. Now these were people who had never experienced or been a part of something like this. Some began to cry, some began to shake, some began to sway almost to the point of falling down. There was much healing taking place as I got to pray for several who had specific physical needs. At one point I told the group that God's heart was to restore them and put them in right standing with himself. Some began to confess sins and ask for forgiveness and to be saved. I never tire of seeing God work. All I had to do was get out of the way and watch as he touched hearts.

Afterwards, I stayed around to pray with anyone who needed it. Several came to speak with me. These were people who really wanted to believe but had been damaged so much through life and bad choices that they just couldn't come down. It was a kind of "I believe" but help me in my unbelief. God was just as powerful and loving to these who came last as he was to the group who came during the meeting.

It's about Him.
Not me.
But he let me participate in a wonderful evening and for that I am grateful.
I was later told by someone who was there, that during their small group meetings, the topic of conversation was what they had experienced from God coming and touching them.
I pray that this will stick and cause them to become passionate to chase after God.

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