Day Thirty Seven of my Fourty Day Fast

Thirty seven days ago I embarked on a venture to fast like Jesus did.  Forty days of fasting and prayer was my quest.  Today, I have only have three days left and I'm feeling a little sad that it will end.  Never did I dream I would gain so much insight, depth of connection and love for my Savior.    

My prayers from the beginning have ranged from praying for personal depth and clarity for the mission ahead; to praying for people around me and even praying for the "unknown" ones that I will come in contact with through starting our ministry, "Restoration Road".    I have prayed for chains of bondage to be broken and a new direction in certain areas of my own life so I could lead others into the same freedom.  I have sought a closeness with Jesus and an emptying of my own desires so I can be a useful tool for His glory. 

Although this has been a difficult journey at times, the benefits are glorious in comparison.  Spiritually, God has been showing off to me.  In His Word, He says that "if you draw near to Him, He will reveal Himself to you."  This could not be more true in my life right now.  As I have discarded the outward things that cloud my pursuit of Him, and panted after Him as a deer pants for the water,  He has given me beautiful glimpses of  who He is.   One of my constant prayers along this journey has been, "Lord, I want to see you and know you.  I want to be closer to you."   The last week has been unbelievable as He has continued to show me insight after insight.  Each one makes me more thirsty and filled all at the same time.

Today, He showed me how our own creative power of reproduction makes us feel instantly connected to your new born child.   The minute the child is born and put into the arms of its parents there is this overwhelming love that overtakes the mother and father.  It's like nothing else, the love of a parent for its child.  That love is there because the parents have just taken a little bit of themselves and created another life.  It's part of them. 

God feels that same way about us.  He created us and feels connected to us.  We, in our ability to create life, get a small picture of what God feels about His own created beings.  His children, created for His purpose.  Loved by Him.  Fallen but not forgotten.  That's what we are.  Not forgotten but given a way of redemption because of the death of Jesus Christ.  

John 3:16 --" For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

That's the love of a personal God that wants us.  He used part of Himself to create us.  There is a connection that was broken and needs to be restored.  He made the way possible, now it's up to us.

RESTORATION ROAD BEGINS

It's time!!!  Starting September 7th our new ministry begins.  RESTORATION ROAD is a ministry focused on helping people find complete freedom from past hurts, addictions and other struggles in life.  Jesus had a plan from the beginning and that plan was for us to be restored to who He intended for us to be.  Our program is based on the premise that Jesus does the healing and we provide the tools to help Him. 

If you live in the Kansas City, MO area, you can find us at NEW LIFE COMMUNITY CHURCH, 10500 N. Central, Kansas City, MO 64155. 

Our hope is that as God works and changes lives we will have more opportunites to help others through adding other locations.  For more information, go to www.restorationroadkc.com.  God bless and watch for updates in the future! 

To the Unknown God

Good Morning world!  While reading my Bible this morning I read something that I felt compelled to share.

 In Acts 17 Paul is in Athens walking through the Areopagus.  For those of you that don't know what the Areopagus is, it was a temple built to house the many Gods that the Athenians worshiped.  In verse 23 Paul says "for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: 'TO THE UNKNOWN GOD' "

Today, I walk through your temple.... the temple called of your life.   As I walk through your life, do I find many altars set up to different gods in your life?  Do I see altars to the god of children; the god of work; the god of achievement; the god of food; the god of self love and the god of religion?  Are there other altars that no one knows about but you?  Do I see an alter to "the unknown God?"

Paul went on to say this in verses 24-28 "Therefore, the One whom you worship with out knowing, Him I proclaim to you: God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.  Nor is He worshiped with men's hands as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.  And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of you own poets have said 'For we are also His offspring.' "

Here is what I believe God wants us to understand about Paul's experience in Athens.  I believe God wants us to see Paul's experience and use it to apply to our life today.  What Paul saw in the Areopagus was many alters made for worship of different gods.  Then lastly, somewhat as a "catch-all" there was the alter to the "unknown God".  Just in case we forgot to worship something.... here's the "catch-all" god.   Paul's experience as he walked through that temple was probably difficult.  I bet his heart broke as he thought "You worship everything and everyone but the real God, the one you call "Unknown."

How ironic they would call Him "The Unknown God" because though they worshipped a carving to Him, He really was unknown to them.   As I walk through your life, is their an alter to "The Unknown God" ?

If so, let me introduce you to the One true God just like Paul did to those people in Athens.  Meet the God who knows everything about you because He made you.   He is all around you, in every part of the earth and makes everything breath.  As you walk on the ground outside your front door, you walk on His ground and His creation.  He is part of everything around and in you.  He appointed this time as the time you would live on the earth, in this part of the world, in this country, on this street.  Your life was appointed to you at this time in history with the hope that you would worship Him not as "Unknown" but as "Known", as your personal God, Savior and Lord.  For you are His offspring, created for more than just this small blip of time on the earth.

Make Him "Known" in your life by saying  "Jesus, I make my only altar to you."