Our journey is complete my friends. I feel a little like Bilbo at the end of Return of the King writing "There and Back" accept I'm not that short and I don't have a precious - I digress.
So here we are and I have held you at bay now for several months. My last entry was a few days ago and I stated that I had every confidence that the Lord was going to "see through" the sale of our house in Santa Clarita - and He did - we closed the very next day!!! Just more walking on the water my friends. Soooo many prayers that the Lord would allow us to sell our house by the end of the year. Guess what, we closed on the very last business day of the year. It reminds me of scripture that states: Even when we are faithless he is faithful!!
So, earlier I mentioned something about dangerous prayers. I need to start there again (if you don't know what I mean look at the earlier postings). This journey all started for us about a year ago as I was driving down McBean Parkway in Valencia heading to the mall on my day off. I was spending time in prayer while I was driving and I was praying over former staff members that I served with at Faith. That's when the Lord brought to mind Peter and Becca Bunnell. They are dear friends that moved from the comforts of Southern California, family and friends to the outskirts of the world - MONGOLIA - to be missionaries. You know how you always worry that the Lord is going to send to remote places like MONGOLIA to minister? Well it happened to them.
Then something really cool happened. As I was praying for them, I started to be moved to envy. That's right - ENVY! You see, my life of excitement and passion really revolves around acting in Faith. It was at that moment that I really started to wrestle with the fact that I had maybe become to comfortable in the little bubble called Santa Clarita and my very comfortable and wonderful church, Faith. I was compelled to pray a dangerous prayer - I shook off the dusty cobwebs and let the Lord know that I was ready for change - anything was on the table.
The most telling part of that prayer was that I asked the Lord to put my family in a place where we could be most effective - remember this as you read through the journey of being out of the boat.
Ask yourself right now as you read this, " Lord, am I willing to let it all go, to give everything back to you, and be used to the greatest possible extent that my gifts and abilities can carry me through the power of Your Spirit? If not Lord, give me the faith that I lack, help me with my faith and help me to stay focused on you and please call to me and ask me to step out of the boat just like You did with Your servant Peter!"
So, if you want to live in the sweet charity of the grace and power of the Holy Spirit, I would entreat you to consider what in your life is of such great importance and merit that you should keep it from stepping out of the boat. If you can with great confidence locate such a thing, I would suggest you build a shrine in your house and treat it with the upmost importance.
You know what I mean ......... careful Jer ...... you wouldn't want to offend ......
Back to the story -
So, as we came off of a wonderful sabbatical in the summer of 05 the Lord started this work in my heart. What happened next I was unprepared for. You see, I am usually the one in my marriage that is burdened (or graced) with these epiphanies and have to spend time revealing and talking through all the details to my wife. That was about to take a great turn in Nov. of 05.
I came home from work one day and Jeanine was curled up in a blanket on the sofa with her Bible - not such a bad thing - unless she was in that same position when I left for work that day. Anyone who knows my wife knows that she just doesn't act that way, or let circumstances or thoughts overwhelm her to the point of "non-functioning". I started to make the typical blunder of questioning why she spent her entire day on the sofa (which she really didn't) and then the Spirit impressed on me that I should sit down, shut up and listen to what might be going on in my lovely wifes heart and head.
Jeanine revealed that she was deeply troubled and hurting because she believed that the Lord was asking her to prepare for great loss. She had been studying Abraham and how the Lord asked Abraham to pick up and move to a different country - a country that wasn't his own. She couldn't pin point it, but she felt as if we were either going to lose someone close to us through death or the Lord was going to ask us to move soon.
O.K. - now I know how she feels when I come home and drop a bomb on her.
So, we have a dangerous prayer - a wandering and searching pastor - an epiphany of loss -
what could be next?
Stay tuned, take a break and then come back and read more.
So here we are and I have held you at bay now for several months. My last entry was a few days ago and I stated that I had every confidence that the Lord was going to "see through" the sale of our house in Santa Clarita - and He did - we closed the very next day!!! Just more walking on the water my friends. Soooo many prayers that the Lord would allow us to sell our house by the end of the year. Guess what, we closed on the very last business day of the year. It reminds me of scripture that states: Even when we are faithless he is faithful!!
So, earlier I mentioned something about dangerous prayers. I need to start there again (if you don't know what I mean look at the earlier postings). This journey all started for us about a year ago as I was driving down McBean Parkway in Valencia heading to the mall on my day off. I was spending time in prayer while I was driving and I was praying over former staff members that I served with at Faith. That's when the Lord brought to mind Peter and Becca Bunnell. They are dear friends that moved from the comforts of Southern California, family and friends to the outskirts of the world - MONGOLIA - to be missionaries. You know how you always worry that the Lord is going to send to remote places like MONGOLIA to minister? Well it happened to them.
Then something really cool happened. As I was praying for them, I started to be moved to envy. That's right - ENVY! You see, my life of excitement and passion really revolves around acting in Faith. It was at that moment that I really started to wrestle with the fact that I had maybe become to comfortable in the little bubble called Santa Clarita and my very comfortable and wonderful church, Faith. I was compelled to pray a dangerous prayer - I shook off the dusty cobwebs and let the Lord know that I was ready for change - anything was on the table.
The most telling part of that prayer was that I asked the Lord to put my family in a place where we could be most effective - remember this as you read through the journey of being out of the boat.
Ask yourself right now as you read this, " Lord, am I willing to let it all go, to give everything back to you, and be used to the greatest possible extent that my gifts and abilities can carry me through the power of Your Spirit? If not Lord, give me the faith that I lack, help me with my faith and help me to stay focused on you and please call to me and ask me to step out of the boat just like You did with Your servant Peter!"
So, if you want to live in the sweet charity of the grace and power of the Holy Spirit, I would entreat you to consider what in your life is of such great importance and merit that you should keep it from stepping out of the boat. If you can with great confidence locate such a thing, I would suggest you build a shrine in your house and treat it with the upmost importance.
You know what I mean ......... careful Jer ...... you wouldn't want to offend ......
Back to the story -
So, as we came off of a wonderful sabbatical in the summer of 05 the Lord started this work in my heart. What happened next I was unprepared for. You see, I am usually the one in my marriage that is burdened (or graced) with these epiphanies and have to spend time revealing and talking through all the details to my wife. That was about to take a great turn in Nov. of 05.
I came home from work one day and Jeanine was curled up in a blanket on the sofa with her Bible - not such a bad thing - unless she was in that same position when I left for work that day. Anyone who knows my wife knows that she just doesn't act that way, or let circumstances or thoughts overwhelm her to the point of "non-functioning". I started to make the typical blunder of questioning why she spent her entire day on the sofa (which she really didn't) and then the Spirit impressed on me that I should sit down, shut up and listen to what might be going on in my lovely wifes heart and head.
Jeanine revealed that she was deeply troubled and hurting because she believed that the Lord was asking her to prepare for great loss. She had been studying Abraham and how the Lord asked Abraham to pick up and move to a different country - a country that wasn't his own. She couldn't pin point it, but she felt as if we were either going to lose someone close to us through death or the Lord was going to ask us to move soon.
O.K. - now I know how she feels when I come home and drop a bomb on her.
So, we have a dangerous prayer - a wandering and searching pastor - an epiphany of loss -
what could be next?
Stay tuned, take a break and then come back and read more.
2 comments:
aw jer dont just leave us hanging.
jenny embleton
I wont - the rest should be up by Wednesday. I am praying for your possible relocation. Thanks for tuning in,
Jer
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