Who Am I? Who Are We?

I know that several of you stop by here from time to time to read and peruse the pages of this blog. Because of an ever changing range of folks dropping by, I occasionally have the urge to update and fill you in on exactly who I am and what it is I do.
My name is Michael Bynum and I serve as Chaplain/ Staff Pastor for Rapha Ministries, a Christ Centered Drug and Alcohol Rehab. That is why a lot of the topics I blog about are concerned with recovery and sobriety and a new life through Christ.

You may be asking, "Is that my picture above?" Nope. That is my spiritual father and mentor, John Wimber. John was the one who gave the Vineyard association "Game." Another way of putting it, would be that John was used by God to bring the Vineyard to the forefront of the 80's and 90's. I was very lucky in that Gadsden Vineyard Church, where I served as Associate Pastor of eight years, had an incredible library of teachings and conferences on tape. During my eight years there, that library became my seminary as I studied from it daily. It helped to shape and cement who I am in Christ and what my beliefs are about the Kingdom of God.

Here at Rapha, I have the wonderful privilege to hold a Saturday night service for those in the program as well as any former clients that want to return. The worship is not always perfect or musically sound (wrong notes / wrong words / but a righteous heart), but it is heart felt and very passionate. Because the ones who attend are always in transition, we try to maintain the simplicity of the Gospel.
1.) I'm a sinner
2.) Jesus is the only way
3.) Cross and Tomb offer me freedom from my sin
4.) Confess/ Repent/ Believe.
Jesus is Lord and Savior.

I have been here at Rapha going on into my 14th year. I never envisioned myself being here this long. The very first time I came here back in the late 90's, I swore I'd never be back. God had other plans and since his plans are better than mine..........I accepted his offer to come back. One thing lead to another and I found myself teaching classes. I served the first 6 years as a volunteer and the rest as part of the staff.

My passion is to pass on what God has shown me to those who truly want it.
II Timothy 2:2 kinds of sums up what I am called to do.  "You have heard me teach many things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. Teach these great truths to trustworthy people who are able to pass them on to others." In other words, I want to make disciples. Men who can leave this program and return to their lives, full of the Spirit of God, able to hear God and give away what has been entrusted to them. Anytime one of these men return or call me to let me know what incredible things God is doing in their lives, that is payday for me.

I have been blessed beyond measure over these years to see God do some incredible things in the lives of men that the world has given up on and cast aside. I celebrate each victory and I weep with each one that doesn't make it. I came to the realization long ago that God has called me to be obedient and that through this, He would make the difference in the lives of the men. So I teach. I instruct. I pray over and weep over. I encourage and I correct. All the while, pointing to Jesus as not just the answer, but the only answer to every problem I suffer with on this side of eternity.

What a wonderful, merciful God!
God on you.....
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Leviticus...Hang on to you hats!!!

Leviticus 1:1-2
The LORD called to Moses from the Tabernacle and said to him...."Give the following instructions to the Israelites...."

I do love me some Leviticus.
"What?"
"Are you crazy....Leviticus is the dullest of the dull."
I use to think that until I began to see what was going on, and how it applied to my every-day-walking-around-eating-sleeping-life.
God has delivered and removed Israel from the land of Egypt.
The land of Egypt where they lived 430 years.
I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I do believe if a group of people live in the same spot....the same country for an extended period of time, they would tend to take on the customs and habits of the society.
Bingo! That is exactly what happened to Israel. They (As the Bangles so aptly put it) walked like an Egyptian.

God delivered them with power and took them away from the influence of the Egyptian culture.
But as the old saying goes...you can take the boy out of Egypt but you can't take Egypt out of the boy. Well, in this case, you can.
You see God instituted rules for living.
Rules of righteous and right living because he knew it was going to take time for the people to adapt to a new way of seeing life.
That is why Leviticus and Number as well as the book of Deuteronomy is so exciting to me. Here we have the standards for life in this new community of people.

So how does this all apply to me?
First off...I have not been called to live by the dietary or religious rules found in these books. It is helpful, however, for me to understand the extent that God does want to invade my life and change for his kingdom and his plans. I am not free to run willy-nilly through my day with an occasional passing thought on God and his purposes. He is center and at the front of every thing I say and do. I want to please him. I want to grow in him. I want to learn to "hear" him better and then follow the dictates of his will. I can't do this if I am steeped in the culture of today. I have to live in this culture, but I don't have to be a part of it. I don't have to sell myself to it and embrace its beliefs.

The Life Recovery Bible states the purpose of the book of Leviticus:
To show that God desires to have personal fellowship with those who turn to him. Only through the channels of worship and personal obedience to God can we fully experience the cleansing and freedom he offers to those who believe.

The book of Leviticus shows us a God who is beyond our imagination. A God who is holy, pure, clean, sinless and perfect. As you read the book you'll come across countless rules and regulations given to the Israelites. These only confirm to us the truth of God's nature and character. The people needed to humbly obey God if they wanted to live in close fellowship with him. But despite his holiness, God reached (and still does so) out to a broken and sinful people. He provides a way---(though the path is difficult)  for all to recover from their past failures.

The laws and sacrifices we read about in Leviticus point to or can be viewed as a type and shadow of God's later provision of the perfect sacrifice...........Jesus Christ. Because of Jesus' death and resurrection, we no longer need animal sacrifices to atone for our sins. Instead, it is through believing in God's loving forgiveness and in Christ's power over sin and death that we are saved.

Is that cool or what?
God on you....
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Separation

Leviticus 20:23
Do not live by the customs of the people whom I will expel before you. It is because they do these terrible things that I detest them so much.

I really don't want to fall into a category of someone who continually is harping on what we "AREN'T" doing. You know, someone who has a list of rule and regulations and takes it upon themselves to be the "moral" police to every one else. That really isn't my call. So if I write something in a posting here at the Greene Street Letters, it is first and foremost directed to myself. Not that I'm trying to punish myself or walk around like some suffering servant with scars, no! I'm simply giving my personal take on the things that God is dealing with me in my daily life.

It is a fine line between living in a culture and society and taking on the customs and belief's of that society. We seem to be able to embrace and slide into the custom and culture a lot easier than we are to see if it indeed is pleasing to God. I am quick to excuse things in my behavior only to be quickened by God's Holy Spirit into seeing that what I am embracing is not pleasing to God.  Without the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we loose our moral compass and become the judge and jury of what we think we should believe and take unto ourselves as our way of life.

It really is like Judges 21:25 when it reads, "In those days Israel had no king, so the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes. Without the word of God and His Holy Spirit to guide us, we become a people ruled by appetite. Right becomes whatever we want at the moment. That is the scary part of the human will and mind. We can justify just about what every we want to in order to get our way. People in addiction do some terrible things simply because they have reasoned within themselves that this behavior is justifiable in order to achieve an end. We will steal, lie, cheat and hurt those around us because our needs take precedent over anyone else.

I want to live my life the way the prophet Isaiah wrote in chapter 50:4-5 -- The Sovereign LORD has given me his words of wisdom, so that I know what to say to all these weary ones. Morning by morning he wakens me and opens my understanding to his will. The Sovereign LORD has spoken to me, and I have listened. I do not rebel or turn away.

Let me ask you something.
How has your way of living and doing business with the world worked?
Do you live in peace?
Or do you have a storm of emotional and spiritual turmoil inside yourself?
Today is the best day to start a new life with Jesus.
God on you....
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Death--where is your sting?

I find myself getting up earlier and earlier each day. This morning I got up at 4:27 a.m.
Spent time in prayer and Bible study and, after my wife woke up, went for my morning walk.
It was 38 degrees but I kind of like getting out when it cold like that. I like the wind in my face (that is if I have on my big, honkin', winter coat and gloves). I like the quietness of our neighborhood as I make my way down Case Avenue. My thoughts were directed toward all the pain and hurt that has invaded my world. Those around me that I know and love are struggling with health issues. I realize that we are all getting older. I never could even envision myself being 60 years old, but here I am. As I walked I prayed for those I knew were in the hospital or at home in hospice. I know that I know that death is the transition from this side of heaven to the other side in the presence of Jesus. I know that what I claim to be believe today will, upon my death, become truth that I know. Everything I profess to believe and be true by the word of God, I will see, touch, taste, hear and smell once I cross over in death.

Don't take me for morbid. I'm not.
Don't think I've a death wish to go ahead and be with Jesus. I don't.
But it is a part of living.
I guess what I truly want is to see death the way God sees it.
I believe  in Psalms 116:15- Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his saints.
Death has value to God.
Especially when it involves someone who has given their life to Him. To take them from this side and bring them into His presence to receive their reward is something that God holds dear. He calls it precious. I don't know if I could say death was precious at this time. I know that there were instances where death was very merciful, in that it was the ultimate healing to a loved one that was suffering.
The state of the person as far as their relationship with God makes death a precious thing. For those who have lived their lives under the guidance of God's Holy Spirit find that death is merely the next step in this journey. I am excited that there is more even after this life. How cool is that?

I Corinthians 15:22 - 26
Everyone dies because all of us are related to Adam the first man. But all who are related to Christ, the other Adam, will be given new life. But there is an order to this resurrection: Christ was raised first; then when Christ comes back, all his people will be raised. After that the end will come, when he will turn the Kingdom over to God the Father, having put down all enemies of every kind. For Christ must reign until he humbles all his enemies beneath his feet. And the last enemy to be destroyed is death.

God on you....
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Let The Journey Begin

Tomorrow night will be the first time I have taught since my heart attack back in December. I am grateful to Debbie, Sam and Seth for teaching and bringing a feast of the Word to us. I have been kind of chasing a thought that God gave me during the month of December. I am going to teach a message from each book of Scripture beginning this Saturday night. We will start in Genesis and hopefully take it all the way through Revelation. Along the way, I pray that  God would help me to see truth about myself. Truth about Himself (God) and truth about the Kingdom here now in this age. I know that we do not see the completeness of the Kingdom of God yet, in other words, we have a Kingdom here but not yet. What is the Kingdom of God? It is where ever His rule and reign is being carried out in the hearts and lives of the people. We pray in Matthew 6:10: Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We are asking God to bring forth the power, the practices and the plans of heaven as He is directing them, and let them take root and grow right here in our time and space.

Hopefully during this journey, we will see the incredible power of God to eliminate the death and damage that sin has caused. In seeing this, may we all become more trusting in God and allow Him to work in our own lives.

I truly am working on getting the messages back on each week and hopefully I will have the one from this coming Saturday night ready by next Tuesday. I am excited about what God is doing here at Rapha.
2012 is going to be a year of the Word. More than that, 2012 is going to be the year of the illumination of God's word in our hearts. Make plans to join us as we begin this journey, this Saturday night here at Rapha --- 7 p.m. If you can't make it, then look for the message in the podcast section of the Greene Street Letters.

Psalm 107:20
He sent His word and healed them, and delivered thim from their destruction.

God on you....
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Number # 1300

Today is my 1300 posting here at the Greene Street Letters. Wouldn't it be great to really believe that each of the 1300 entries would be jewels of wisdom. That some day in the future, a beleaguered, down trodden individual happened across this blog and from the entries was able to unlock the secrets and mysteries of the Kingdom of God? Truth is....it ain't going to happen. Over the past 1299 entries, some have been funny. There have been postings which maybe did strike something deep inside and awakened someone to God's truth. Remember...God's truth has always been there. It's me that is thick and dull and not very perceptive.

I remember our first year of posting here on this blog. We had just moved our Sunday morning service to Saturday night and I wanted to connect with the guys who had finished and left the program here at Rapha. I wanted them to be able to keep up with what was going on here at Rapha, as well as giving them a kind of daily devotional that would keep them pointed in the right direction in their recovery. Something that would encourage them and keep them focused.

From time to time, I seem to loose my focus and take the blog off into areas that may not seem recovery related. God, in his infinite wisdom and mercy, always leads me back. For that I am grateful. I know that the words you read here are very simple and, in fact, you've probably heard them before.
"One day at a time."
"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change."
"It works if you work it."
"It about spiritual progress, not spiritual perfection."
"Rarely have we seen anyone fail who follows this simple path."
It isn't the words or even the thought behind the words.
It's about the heart who reads the words.
Is the heart ready to receive truth?
If so, then the words will become a match that ignites the dry, hard wilderness places where we have held on to our addictive secrets in order to control our life.
We allow God to do for us what we could not do for ourselves.

There is no doubt in my mind (or heart) that Jesus is the answer to the problem of addiction.
Addiction affects the body.
Addiction affects the mind.
And addiction affects the spirit.
Salvation introduces and awakens my spirit to the voice and life that God wants to give me.
Salvation brings healing to my body.
Salvation clears, cleans and restores my mind.
Jesus brings wholeness and completeness to hearts who are ready to change their ways and their lives.
This is more than a theory.
I have seen the healing hand...
The saving hand.....
The restoring hand of God work in the lives of those who had given up.
That is why I will never stop sharing about this God.
That is why I will never give up on anyone who is trapped by addiction.
My God is able to save and heal.

Isaiah 59:1
Listen! The LORD is not too weak to save you, and he is not becoming deaf. He can hear you when you call.

Have a great day!
God on you....
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God Is My Provision

Exodus 16:4
God said to Moses, "I'm going to rain bread down from the skies for you. The people will go out and gather each day's rations. I'm going to test them to see if they'll live according to my teaching or not."

(From today's QUICK STUDY)
What would it be like with no money, no economy, no foreign trade pacts, no stores or restaurants, no banks? Israel found out. This new nation was taken into the wilderness to learn how to build a community God's way. It was not capitalistic or socialistic or communist, not even a monarchy. This was a Heavenly economy, with bread falling from heaven and water coming from rocks! God can, and always has been able to sustain His people any time, any place, any way He desires. He (God) is the same yesterday, today and forever.....(Pastor Rod Hembree)

Why do we doubt God's ability to sustain us today, here in our world? Why is it we don't trust God?
When the economy went south back in 2008, people suffered. There was great fear and panic about what the future held. Had God changed because of this down turn in our economy? I don't think so. I think we need to become more trusting in our relationship with God. If the truth be known, we don't really want God to provide for us, we want Him to save and sustain our current standard of living. Let me keep my toys and baubles and beads and I will follow you. I don't think it works that way. Now don't get me wrong, I truly believe that God doesn't mind us having things. The problem comes in when things have us and possess us to the point that losing them becomes more important than me knowing God.

The greatest place to be is where there is a total relying on God to meet our needs and to guide us. Was taking care of Israel's daily need #1 on God's list? Probably not. Getting them to the promised land was the most important factor in this journey, but how like God to cover all the needs and things that Israel had to have in order to survive. Now if God did this for Israel as a nation, how much more, under the new covenant of Christ, will God take care of you?

I look to God in every aspect of my life. He is not my provider.....He is my provision. He is all sufficient to my life. He is the sustainer and giver of life that has, through my salvation, transported me from a life of spiritual darkness and death, into a life of spiritual light and eternal life with Christ.
It doesn't get any better than this!
Look to God today to be your provision.
He will not disappoint you or let you down.
God on you today!

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