Forcing God

On occasion I dream dreams, some I remember some I forget for a time. Months ago I had a dream that when I awoke I thought it was reality, but I quickly realized that those events had not yet come to pass. A week ago I boarded a chartered bus packed with excited teenagers and headed for Centrifuge at Ridgecrest, NC: The Southern Baptist Mecca. I was not looking forward to the week, not necessaraly because of the dream, but rather because of some of the other chaperones. The first few days of camp did not suprise me; they felt ever so empty, but it was wednesday evening worship that wore down on my spirit. I have never before been surrouned and so overwhelmed by such a spirit of vanity. All the while I heard God speak with clairity, "be patient, everything will be alright friday night." I had a great peace about it, but I was also afraid; I was to lead devotion friday night. After the vanity of wednesday I understood why my spirit was not at peace with the other adults I was serving with. Never before have I seen man try to persuade, coax, rather, force the Spirit of God to move in any time or place. Man's efforts to force God to do anything leads to nothing more than wounded and confused people. Praise be to God, He is bigger and can over come any false teaching and vainity filled efforts for God to preform on command at the whims of man. Despite every attempt of satan to prevent God from saving, changing, and restoring the lives a many students in our group, God moved in such power that I had never seen before. God used me in a way I had never been used before; He gave me the words to say and annointed them as they left my mouth and were recived by the forty or so present in the room. God's Spirit leaped out from me and engulfed the room and we prayed. Tears flowed like streams down hardened faces and I heard prayers of repentance of healing I so longed to hear in the kids I know and love so much. I wept in joy over the brokenness and satanic stronghold that was broken down in so many of their lives. God even suprised me with the salvation of one who had always been such a handful. The changes that occured where evident immediatley revealing God's power and glory, and may God be exhalted for His great grace... God works in His own time and is not the by product of camp, rather God can work when, where, however, and through whoever He so desires.

Merhaba and Stuff

Time goes by faster and faster it seems. Such is life I suppose, but a vapor here and then gone. My ten day adventure in Istanbul, Turkey has come in gone; a memory etched into my own mind and stills taken on a digital camera. It was an awsome experience both in the places I went and saw and the power and workings of the Lord God. For there is but one God and Muhammed is not his prophet, rather His name is Yahweh and His son is Jesus. I picked up a little bit of the turkish language in my stuides prior to leaving the country and even more so on the field which proved to be quite helpful, to the point that with an abudance of facial hair, a longer than usual head of hair, and a good tan many of the turkish people thought I was a Turk, anIranian, or even an Iraqi. The Turkish people are for the most kind extermely kind, giving, and receptive. Very few hold strickly to the teachings of Muhammed and the Quran comparable at best to back slidden Baptists or Christmas Easter christians. A city with 20,000,000 people spawns views of appartments in every direction; so many people but only an estimated 5,000 Christ followers. But God is in Istnabul and His Spirit is broody over the sea of aparments and traffic. Revival is comming to Turkey, but cease not in prayer and supplication but in all patience and ferverence praise the God of heaven. I will never be able to express everything I saw and felt in Istanbul but it was beyond my wildest dreams. A city that seems to never sleep, so big it reaches two two continents, Eurpoe and Asia, and as I see it safer than Graceville at town of maybe 5,000 where my apartment was borken into and robbed while I was six thousand miles away. So great is our God and so great is His love for Istanbul as well as my own. There will always be a piece of myself in Istanbul, how I miss it so already. By the way, merhaba means "hello" in turkish...