Body Count

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"Although our victory has already been secured, the battle continues to be fought all around us. Once in a while an enemy agent is allowed to pass through our Hero's hands and attack us. We feel the sting of sin followed by the inevitable itching of our consciences, or we are bitten by life's trials and become swollen with grief, frustration, pain and uncertainty. All such symptoms are consequences of being wounded on the battlefield.

It is during these times when we so desperately need the church, our local brigade, our community MASH unit, where the healing salve of God's mercy is applied. Here in our church family we are reminded that we are more than conquerors. Indeed, we have chosen the winning side and we can rest assured that we do not face this battle alone."

Read the rest of Nameless, Faceless Love friend Bill Hoffman's post over at Living Hope Thoughts entitled "Body Count" by clicking here.




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A Crowded Heart

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When I was without Christ, my heart was lonely and empty. It was busy with frustration and fear, mind you, but it was lonely and empty.

When I became Christ’s disciple, He began a renovation project within me like I never expected. There was nothing left when He was finished. He even laid a new foundation; Himself.

So, in a way, my heart was still empty in the early stages of His work in me, but in a different way. Now my heart was also empty of the frustration and fear.

Over the years, Jesus has filled my heart. He has filled my heart with Him, with a deep sense of my helplessness without Him and dependence upon Him, with wonder for everything about Him.

I have worked with a Christ-centered recovery house for men for some years now. Yesterday, I was at a meeting where the establishment of the same type of recovery house for women was being discussed.

As we talked, I thought back as I regularly do on the many men who have come through the men’s house over the years. I thought back on how I remember them all. They, and the love that God gave me for them, have filled my heart.

Jesus has given me a crowded heart.

Jesus has given me a heart crowded with love and faces and shared experiences. No busyness of frustration our fear now lives there, though they seek to knock at times at the door of my heart. There is no room for them, though. Too crowded, you see.

So Jesus has given me a crowded heart, crowded with very special love and very special faces and very special shared experiences. Some of those faces have passed on now, Rick, Eric, Steve. But my love for them and shared experiences with them and all the others who abide in my crowded heart will never change. There they will live with me in love for as long as He gives me breath.

Look, over there, you’ll see.......

There's Alex, Bo, Tom, Bill, James, Larry, another Tom, Bruce, Steve, another Larry, Mike, and Doug. Over there, there's Danny, Keith, another Bill, another Keith, Ken, another Alex, and Glen. Oh, and see over there? That's Ron, another Mike, Jim, another Steve, Bud, another Doug, Chris, another Ron, Phil, Ray, another Phil, Tim, Johnny, Eric, another Steve, Rick.......so many more.......

I love you guys. So much.

Jesus, You have given me a heart full of You and others and my love for You and them. You have given me a heart filled with Your love and their love for me.

Thank You for giving me a crowded heart.



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Jesus: Melts the Frozen Heart

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I was sitting in the waiting area of a local establishment this morning, and my eyes were drawn to the windows of the entryway. The outside of these windows were covered with a gray sheet of ice about 1/2 inch thick, left over from the cold night before.

The sun was rising in the sky and began to hit the windows from the top down. As it did, the hard, cold sheet of ice began to melt, and the sun reflected off of the tiny drops of water.

Our Lord spoke to me as I watched this.

There are many cold, hard people in the world today. There are still areas in our own hearts that remain hard and cold. Through fear and past wounds and bitterness, hardness and coldness set in and freeze a place in a person’s heart, rendering it lifeless and gray.

But when the Son touches even a portion of a frozen place, it begins to melt, and the result is truly wonderful.

When the Son touches the frozen places in people’s hearts, that which was dim, rigid, and immovable becomes shining, fluid and flowing.

As I beheld that frozen window being transformed by the Son, I saw in the melting ice a bed of diamonds and a sea of twinkling stars. No ice could stand in the presence of that Son. Silently, slowly, inch by inch, the Son can change our frozen places into worlds of wondrous beauty.

Let the Son touch you today.

It's All About The One

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I organized a team of 15 traveling to Sandy Lake, Ontario, Canada to do a Vacation Bible School, outreach and special services at the Native Reserve there. The drive is 1425 miles to Red Lake, Ontario, Canada and 300 miles by plane from there.

Arriving in Red Lake in time for our flight, I was informed that our plane had gone "mechanical,” meaning "IT BROKE!” A smaller plane was available, but it could manage only about 7 of the team. It seemed as though the decision had been made for us.

After prayer, I sent half the team on to Sandy Lake on the smaller plane and got a hotel for the rest of us. That afternoon we drove over to the lake for a picnic and some swimming. The water is very cold and not too many went in, but everyone was having fun.

I watched as an Indian walked around the lake towards our bus. Once within earshot he called out, "Pastor?" Puzzled I swung around answering, "Yes, may I help you?" "You don't remember me do you,” he asked quizzically. Still perplexed I answered, "No, I don't!" "It was 3 years ago you lead my wife and I to the Lord at a tent meeting on the reserve,“ he explained. He went on to tell the story of their conversion, their move to Winnipeg, Manitoba, how they had walked away from God, and their subsequent return to this area.

He continued, "Last week my wife and I decided that we needed help! We knelt down in the kitchen and prayed for God to send you back into our lives and here you are!" I was dumbfounded, I could say nothing but wonder at the hand of God working in our lives. Later that evening I dropped off the team at the hotel, taking a young brother with me to visit the couple and, there in their kitchen, they renewed their commitment to Jesus.

One week later my wife, daughter and I flew out of the reserve early to prepare the bus for the home trip. While in a diner a young man entered, walked to my table and greeted us. It was a former pastor, who had fallen into sin. I greeted him and asked what he was doing here, I thought that he was in Manitoba. His answer shocked me. "I was, but I felt as though I had to fly to Red Lake this morning, I don't know why. Then as I walked down the street I saw the Ohio plates on the bus and knew that you were here."

I queried, "What can I do for you?" His answer brought tears to my eyes, "I need to talk to you about my soul!"

1425 miles, a broken plane, delays in my schedule all for the ONE person that God would have me touch. One at the lake, one in the diner.

It is all about the one.

When Christ hung on the cross it was about one.

Lord, give me the willingness to go to the one!

There You Are, Peter

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In the 1991 movie Hook, the story of Peter Pan, there is a scene that has always stuck with me because of a spiritual symbolism that I see in it.

Peter (portrayed in this film version of the tale by Robin Williams), who originally lived in Never Never Land, has grown up in the world and now forgotten both his roots and experiences in Never Never Land. He returns to Never Never Land with Tinkerbell to find his son, who has been kidnapped by an evil pirate from his youth.

When he arrives, he finds a group of boys called the Lost Boys. When Peter lived in Never Never Land as a boy, he was their leader. But now, after spending so much time in the world that it has robbed him of his memories and his birthright, they do not recognize him, nor he them.

But then one of the little Lost Boys, Pockets, approaches Peter and asks him to kneel down. When Peter does, Pockets places his hands on the sides of Peter’s face and gently stretches his face into a grin.

When he does so, all the Lost Boys gasp in recognition, and Pockets says, “There you are, Peter.”

I was praying recently with an old friend of mine, a Brother in Christ. He'd been out in the world for a while now. I’d see him every once in a while, and I came to notice over time that he had forgotten who he was. He had forgotten his birthright. Living in the world as part of the world will do that to you.

Gets to the point that, though you can love someone who is living as part of the world with all your heart, you don’t recognize them like you used to, either. You remember that there was a person by that name and with that appearance, but it’s been so long since you’ve seen them as they were that you wonder if you’d recognize them if they suddenly reappeared.

It was kind of that way for my friend and I. But then we got together to pray recently. I asked him to pray. Just felt I ought to. And he didn’t start praying right away. He waited. And then he began to pray.

The way he prayed was different, yet familiar. The way he prayed was like he used to pray when he and Jesus were close.

And, just as though my friend’s words of prayer were a revelation of him kneeling before Jesus while He placed His hands lovingly upon his cheeks and stretched them into a smile, I heard my heart gasp in recognition. “There you are, Peter.”

Peter has returned to the land of his youth.