I am wondering
I've been wondering what thoughts are stirring down there, Gary, that will reward me for the effort to do the BLOG dialog. I'm a bit out of currency for spending much personal and spiritual time on the Web--or even in email dialogs with friends--because of a busy life. Will your thoughts slow me down and build me up, will they be easily forgotten like the taste of a mint after a big meal (good, but never the topic of discussion), will they yank my tether strong enough I will see God's hand at the other end? Or will this be fun stuff, good stuff, but nothing that will upgrade my Walk with God or that will channel my energies or sharpen my intentions in serving God, family, and mankind?
Any Mouse
Any Mouse
posted by Windmill Duke | 5:27 AM
3 Comments:
I have prayed for this day for you. Less is truly more. Will generations of youth now be fathered because Gary and Carolyn sold the ranch and wrote the book? Hope so. Will Gary mentor those of us who struggle as parents in wisdom borne of trench warfare? Hope so. We'll see.
I do know that my friend and his bride are lighter by one ranch, and likely better prepared for battle. One less BIG worry, one less thing holding back the battle... the enemy is at the gates, but the gates have moved. Put the forwarding address on the next load in the catapult.
Here, brother, have my blog sword. Slice and dice'm.
-vern-
More perspective from Blood N Fire ... 2003 an historic bldg in Atlanta's heart just a block from Sweet Auburn and in the King neighborhood purchased at the Father's word to be a healing center in a state where 1 in 3 has no insurance and where in 2003 declining revenues resulted in the removal of about 25,000 low-income kids from the insurance roles, not to mention all the low income mothers-with-child to whom the state also bid adieu from Medicaid ... (can it be any clearer how ineffective science can be - consider my dissertation and all that other data on the enormous cost benefits from providing perinatal care) ... so there is this building - set aside at the Father's word but eventually procured with methods of marketing instead of faith ... and in the ensuing battle lost ... sold to preserve the sanctuary homestead in these crumbling warehouses where the 300 homeless have a home...and so it was, that in the kingdom of this world in 2003, ownsership passed to an Iranian Muslim.
And in the loss, there appeared to be a death of dreams and vision, when in reality, powerful seeds of repentance and forgiveness have been unleased. These in turn call forth faith in the greater Kingdom and the truth of resurrection power. So it is that at the closing for the sale, BNF people speak words of Kingdom declaration to the new owner....."This is God's building and He has set it aside for a health center." The Iranian Muslim replies, "That is what I have planned for the building ... a health clinic and a pharmacy." BNF, "How wonderful ... but we must tell you God wants the health center for His own."
Months pass ... BNF folk continue to call the Muslim Iranian every week or month and remind him that the God of mercy for the poor, the fatherless, the abandoned, the homeless, the broken in heart and body has laid claim to the building for HIS health center ... this week, during the family gathering conference, resurrection power multiplies in hearts joined by love ... prayers for the kingdom to come with land and buildings gush forth in joy ... property to be purchased with the currency of faith ... and a call comes from the Muslim Iranian asking for a meeting with BNF people to see what they are about ... and then from the BNF family's heart, a wellspring of prayer for the heart and the soul of the Muslim Iranian and the souls of all those to whom his is joined ... and the meeting is wonderful and the flames of faith that work by love rise higher and hotter still ... and this Saturday on the last day of the family gathering conference, the BNF men have their first-ever-in-14-years men's breakfast at a local diner that the owner says can no longer teeter on the brink but will have to close that day and this too births prayers of faith in the Father's provision for this person ... and at this breakfast there are only 2 people not from BNF in the diner, and one of them is the Iranian Muslim, and the BNF men tell him, "You know, don't you, that the building is the Lord's for a health center," and he answers good naturedly, "I know, I know....."
And so on the 32nd anniversary of the day of my new birth in Christ, as the past season ends and the new page is turned, I reflect and remember. I weep for great, great joy that my Father has not forgotten me as He gathered the BNF family for the new season, that I have been welcomed back with love and still have a place at the table. I understand more why the Father took me from here in 1997 for what has proved to be a long season of watching Him form the Body in all our territories with sons and daughters He has brought from the nations to be joined with us. I have watched Him give his Body in this process a strength and completeness it has never known before ... it now spans all the oceans and the mountains and the deserts of this world ... and the joining of the nations and the tribes in territortial bodies is birthing the white hot passionate love of Jesus for the people of the nations that it is our destiny to bring forth out from the center of Father's heart .....not through anything of man, but only by the power of the Holy Spirit.
"And so little flock, this Kingdom for which you have panted like the Colorado deer racing and bounding and darting for the snow-cold-clear mountain stream, is a gift you will surely see appearing among you now. The crumbled concrete and the reflected light from the capitol's gold dome rising over you ... the failures of the past and the weakness of today are the perfect frame for the image of my Son brought forth in you by the past season's fires. As many of the warehouse buildings have fallen since your beginning, I have been building structures which will never come down. So like a Polaroid picture that at first is black and then before your very eyes brings forth the image created by the Light, it is now my good pleasure to unlease the power of the resurrection in and through you so that before your very eyes, you will see My Kingdom appear in your midst in every place in which you dwell. In this season, my dear children, we will together share great joy."
kinda puts the saleof the ranch in perspective now, doesn't it?
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