2014 The Year of Divine Intervention

At the beginning of this year, during our 21 days of fasting and prayer, the Lord spoke to my heart that this would be a year of God intervening.  He led me to Ezekiel 20:14 where it states God acted for the sake of His name.  And we have experienced just that!!! We have seen God lead and open up doors like never before.  God began speaking to my heart about going into our local county jail.  My first visit was just to listen for what God might speak to me.  I ended up preaching twice that first night and had an overwhelming feeling that I was home.  Within two weeks God began bringing back to me a ministry that He laid on my heart 6 years ago.  It is a re-entry program for inmates to help disciple, train and equip them to stand on their own two feet after getting out of jail/prison.  This is when I began seeing God open doors and lead the way.  I just followed excitedly.  There were a couple of guys in Cell Block 1 that God put on my heart early on.  Within a month I was committed to going forward with the live in program called "Freed to Serve Ministries".  A name that God had given me years earlier but not for this ministry.  But I began to see that this is what it was for; Men getting freed from sin and freed from jail and using that freedom to serve the Lord Jesus Christ and others in the community.

The very weekend that I told the two guys in jail about the ministry and that I wanted them to be the first into the program we were under attack.  We got news of loss of income for both me and my wife and attack after attack against our family.  I have never seen so many things happen so quickly with just a decision being made.  The day it all hit was the day I was suppose to be going into the jail.  I didn't want to go that night.  I had nothing to say...nothing positive or uplifting that is.  So, I prayed and prayed and cried out to God.  I was so ready for Him to just take me home for good.  I was tired, worn out, and finished.  Or so I thought.  Thankfully God didn't grant my request for my final homecoming but instead began to show me something.  You see, nothing had happened yet.  It was all things that were threatening to happen down the road.  I then began to think of the Children of Israel walking through the Red Sea with a wall of water on either side.  What must have been going through their minds? "This isn't natural"; "We shouldn't be here"; "We could die at any moment".  The huge walls of water were just a threat of what could happen.  But guess what ? It never did collapse on them.  They walked through and could have with absolutely no fear.

So, I began receiving strength and comfort in that fact that nothing had happened yet.  It was just a fear of what could.  I began to receive strength and encouragement from the Lord and decided one thing.  "If I go down then I am going down trusting in my God!!!!!"  

I shared that night in the jail with the guys and they all prayed for me and said "WE" will trust God together!!!!! wow.  I never thought that this would be what happened.  I was receiving encouragement from the men in jail!!! Thank you Lord.

We began the program with 3 men from the jail and continue to reach out to those still incarcerated twice a week.  We believe the Lord wants to move us to some land out in the country and develop a facility there in the future.  We are believing God for something that will have a profound impact on men's lives.  There are so many that I talk with that have never been in an environment that was positive in any way.  My hope and prayer is to be able to have a facility that is thriving with men that have given their lives to God and are growing in Him every day and can in turn be a positive influence on those just getting out of jail/prison.  Not just with words but with lives that are a living testimony of how God can turn a man's life around for His glory.

The next thing we have seen happen this year was a ministry to abused and battered women and their children, "Psalm 10:18 Ministries".  God has birthed this in my wife's, Beth, heart for many years now.  The Lord has beautifully orchestrated her being there for some women in the jail and also some on the outside to assist, support and minister the life and hope that Jesus has for them.

We both had laid these ministries at the Lord's feet a long time ago and had no idea that they would both take off within a couple months of each other.  We have no idea how God is going to come through financially but we do know it is what He does best.  We are utterly dependent on Him for our family as well as these ministries.  I want to thank Him and praise Him for how He has provided for the men and women, and us as well, through all of this.  He will sustain us.  All we have to do is stand in Him and have faith that He will do it.

God has truly intervened and is doing awesome things.

Nothing Left to Trust In.

It's amazing to think that when I started serving the Lord, about 25 years ago, I thought I fully trusted in Him. Now to some degree that was true, but 25 years later I feel like I am just learning what trust in Him really is. And I readily admit that I have a long way to go.
It is easy to say, "God, I trust in You", and to the most part we believe it. But, it is a totally different thing to walk down a path that seems to leave you with nothing else to lean on except God. One by one, God seems to remove these things until we are in a place that we feel so vulnerable and alone.
The children of Israel faced the same thing, after God had miraculously delivered them from the hand of the Egyptians, God led them in a very strange route right to the Red Sea. He basically took away everything that could have been some benefit to their escape when the Egyptians came after them. However, this is the exact thing that sets the stage for God to step in.
I believe the biggest step is allowing God to take us to this place. We don't have to go; we can choose another path; one that is easier, but definately won't produce the same results.
I think when the children of Israel were crossing the Red Sea that they were terrified. Just think about, a wall of water on the right and a wall of water on the left. And everything within them was telling them that they shouldn't be there; Any minute we could drown; Problems are all around us. However, their feet were on dry ground.
You may be surrounded right now by circumstances and problems that are telling you the same things; Any minute you will be overwhelmed; You shouldn't be here; You will be defeated. Howver, by God's grace, you are still standing. You are alive! You have made it one more day! All you have to do is get your eyes off the wall of problems to your right and to your left and set you eyes on Jesus because He is going to see you through. One step at a time, a little by little. God didn't just pick up the children of Israel and put them on the other side. He made them walk through a place that they had no business being. Surrounded by their problems and just a second away from death, God led them step by step until they came out on the other side.
Your going to make it! Just trust that God is there and He will walk you through everything that shouts your demise. And on the other side you will have a song that has been born out of anguish and hardship but will be the sweetest praise you have ever known.