#Finding God's vision for your life discipleship
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#Finding God's vision for your life discipleship#God's for your life#What is vision#Spiritual development#the power of vision#Purpose and vision#ecclesia#Kingdom of God and vision
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Saturday Morning Session
Guide Us O Thou Great Jehovah
President Dallin H Oaks
What the church and its members give to the poor and needy
D&C 58:26-29 “anxiously engaged in a good cause”
Be more aware and appreciative of the service of others
Jesus is the true light that lighteth every man and teacheth them to do good continually
“We are children of one God and we are here to serve humanity”
Tree schools
Recognize the good of others and support it
Have I Done Any Good
Dieter F Uchtdorf
“Fear not, doubt not. Be of good cheer, let not your heart be troubled.”
He would then ask you to repent so He could forgive you.
Remind you of His great sacrifice allowing us to repent
He is your strength and with His help there are no limits, your potential is limitless.
You are a child of God
At the heart of God’s plan of happiness is your power to choose. Choice is the purpose of this church. It is your destiny. He wants you to choose eternal happiness and eternal life with Him, but he will always allow you to choose.
Jesus Christ and the restored gospel are the right choice, the right answer, and when you feel weak, Jesus Christ is your strength
New revised version of for the strength of youth available today
Taught correct principles, govern yourselves
He would want you to see yourself the way He sees you, and that is very different from the way the world sees you
You need to know the whys and the hows, and then consider the consequences of your own choices. You need to put your trust and your faith in Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ has very high standards for His followers.
The Lord is not saying do whatever you want, He is saying let God prevail
If He were standing here He would profess His love for you, and His complete confidence in you “YOU CAN DO THIS”
Tracy Y Browning – 2nd counselor primary
Put on spiritual guidance glasses so you can see more clearly and focus on the important. Without them on the entire world is filled with confusion
Focus riveted on the Savior and His gospel – nothing invites the Spirit more than fixing your focus on the Savior.
Jesus Christ is both the purpose of our focus and the intent of our destination
The Savior restored focus and clarity to His gospel
We are richly supplied with divine tools to aid our spiritual vision
When we fix our sights on Jesus Christ we come to understand that He is our only source of mercy and redemption
Why do you believe? What are the spiritual motivations of your discipleship?
Where we look for Him, we will find Him each and every day
See the world and each other as He does
Dale G Renlund
When unsure or uneasy you can ask for the Saviors help – when you ask you will receive it.
Operate inside the framework so you don’t crash and burn
Ask for what is right and good, not what is contrary to God’s will
Believing that you will receive
Receive personal revelation only within our perview, not others – in other words we land and takeoff from our own personal runways.
Only the prophet receives revelation for the church – the prophets runway
Personal revelation is personal – you could receive revelation about where to live, what career to do, who to marry
Personal revelation is in harmony with the commandments of God and the covenants we have made with Him
When we try to tell God what to do, we lose the spirit
This is why if a person tells you they received revelation that you are going to marry them you can laugh in their face.
Recognize what God has already revealed to you personally, and accept what He has already given
“nothing is more pervasive to the children of God, than to be under the influence of a false spirit when they think they have the spirit of God.”
Have the confidence to claim personal revelation for yourself, consistent with commandments and covenants already received
Rejoice the Lord is King
Rafael E Pino
What is normal for some may be weird for others, based on their own customs and traditions
If you want a new normal, turn your heart, mind, and soul increasingly towards Jesus Christ
Let the normal things in your lives be those that keep you on the covenant path
1 personal and family study of the scriptures
Each person is responsible for learning the gospel
2 personal and family prayer
Pray allows us to communicate personally with God in the name of Christ
3 attend sacrament meetings weekly
We take the sacrament and renew our covenant to always remember Him and keep His commandments
4 participate frequently in temple work and family history work
Combines our families for eternity
Mosiah 5:15
Embrace your new normal by repenting daily
Minister to others
Keep an eternal perspective
Center your habits on Christ
Hugo Montoya
Take advantage of every opportunity to help our neighbors
We are willing to help each other because we love each other, and my brother’s needs become mine and mine become his, no matter if he speaks a different language or lives in a different country.
Love for God is the first commandment because of what He means to us – He is our Father and we are His children, He will always be there for us
Trust in our Father – He always keeps His promises
Be there for your kids whether they are five or fifty
Our happiness doesn’t depend on the circumstances, but everything to do with our attitude towards the circumstances
Express the gratitude you have for Heavenly Fathers love for you
We do not belong to this earthly home – rather we are eternal beings living earthly experiences
Because He lives, all of God’s children will live forever
Brightly Beams Our Fathers Mercy
Ronald A. Rasband
In the BofM “this day” calls attention to prophetic counsel and teaching
Read an unmarked BofM multiple times
(Sidenote, I’m actually rereading the BofM using an unmarked copy rn, and it has really been amazing reading things and going oohhhhhh wow – its like I’ve not read certain parts before even though I have to have done.)
BofM is more important and precious than rubies and diamonds
“The truths of the Book of Mormon have the power to heal, comfort, restore, succor, strengthen, console, and cheer our souls.” – President Russell M Nelson (The Book of Mormon: What Would Your Life Be Like without It? Oct 2017)
Invitation to give BofM to people who need it, who need to be blessed by it
President Russel M. Nelson
No matter what happens in your lives, your greatest strength comes from the Lord
With the addition of each temple, Godly power comes into the world to strengthen us and combat the influence of the adversary
Abuse constitutes the influence of the adversary
Any kind of abuse on women, children, or anyone – is an abomination to the Lord
He grieves and I (the prophet) grieve when anyone is harmed.
The Savior will not tolerate abuse – and as His disciples, neither can we
Do not allow the adversary to blur the line of what is true and what is not true.
God is the source of all truth
The church embraces all truth that God gives His children
From this pulpit you will continue to hear truth
Always ask the Lord to confirm that what you have heard is true
All Creatures of Our God and King
#ldsconf#tumblrstake#church of jesus christ of latter day saints#general conference#saturday morning session notes
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09/24/2021 DAB Transcript
Isaiah 43:14-45:10, Ephesians 3:1-21, Psalm 68:1-18, Proverbs 24:1-2
Today is the 24th day of September, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian, it is great to be here with you today as we continue our journey around the sun and through the Bible and we have worked our way all the way, well, we’re kind of in the last quarter I guess, of the book of Isaiah and we’re also working our way through the letter to the Ephesians. So, let's dive in today Isaiah chapter 43 verse 14 through 45 verse 10.
Commentary:
Okay, so I have mentioned that Ephesians, at least as I read it, it's like an ever upward climb to these higher vistas to see further, to see further horizons, to see more and understand more. And it’s not like Paul’s saying in this letter like, things it he hasn't said in other ways, but he's in prison and he is writing this passionately. This vision of what's really going on here, and if we just meditate on it. If we just take it in slowly. It is so huge. So, Paul is talking about revelations that he has received, mysteries that he is received, that have previously been unrevealed and I quote “this mystery is that in Christ Jesus, the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and people who also share in the promise through the gospel.” Well so, previously the understanding that Paul had as a Pharisee is that the Jews are the exclusive people and that's what they think but this revelation, this mystery that has been revealed to Paul that he is preaching, well that touches all of us because most of us are Gentiles. And so, for Paul to say that the mystery that’s been revealed is that through Christ, Gentiles and Jews are fellow heirs, members of the same body, people who share in the same promise through the gospel. What Paul is saying is that this is available to everybody in the world which is huge and for me, a Gentile a overwhelming flow of gratitude. Paul goes on, as if to answer a question like, why would God do that, why, why would He welcome everybody in the world, and I quote Paul again “He did this so that through the church, the multifaceted wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was done according to the eternal purpose that He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Okay, that's pretty cosmic in its implications. This is saying God, in his goodness and offering you eternal life, opening a way, welcoming you home. This makes His wisdom known and we are like a living witness, a living display to the unseen realms, that is huge to contemplate. That is a massive vista to just understand that we are all part of something way bigger than…than we ever pay attention to. Paul says because of all of that, because of this gift and because of what it's doing, in Jesus, we can freely approach God with confidence, through faith in Him. We could say yes, this is a theological formula I’ve known for a very long time but think about that. We can freely approach God, the most high God, with confidence through faith in Him. Let's try to live into this today. Let's try to contemplate, consider, meditate upon, allow it to sink in. Even Paul seems blown away. Even as he is writing it down and he gives kind of a benediction here at the end of our reading and so, let's just let this benediction wash over us as we bask in the goodness of God.
Prayer:
For this reason, I kneel before the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the entire family in heaven and on earth receives its name. I pray that, according to the riches of His glory, He would strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner self, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Then, being rooted and grounded in love, I pray that you would be able to comprehend, along with all the saints, how wide and long and high and deep His love is, and that you would be able to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled to all the fullness of God. Now to Him, who is able, according to the power that is at work within us, to do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com is home base. That is the website, and it is how you get connected and find out what's going on around here. So certainly, check it out. If you’re using the app you can access these things by pushing the drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner of the app screen in there or on the web, you’ll find the Community section. In the Community section you’ll find different links to the social media channels that the Daily Audio Bible participates in. You will also find the Prayer Wall which is always on and never off and always available. You can always request prayer on the Prayer Wall. You can also, you know, kind of glance through and see where the Spirit may be leading you to pray and pray for your brothers and sisters who are also going through things and give them a word of encouragement. It means so much to know you’re not carrying it alone; it means so much to know that somebody is praying for you and it's a beautiful thing. It's truly a beautiful thing to know that somebody that you may never actually get to meet in person is praying for you by name because we’re the family of God. So, if you haven't ever visited the Prayer Wall, please be aware it's in the Community section either on the app or at the website, so check it out.
If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you humbly, humbly for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you are using the Daily Audio Bible app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.
And as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, that's the little red button up at the top break or you can dial 877-942-4253.
And that's it for today. I’m Brian, I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Prayer and Encouragements:
Hi, Daily Audio Bible, my name is New Eyes and I’m from Chattanooga, Tennessee and I’m calling in for the first time because I was really moved by some prayer requests the other day and I wanted to lift some folks up here in our community. First of all, I would like to thank the Lord for Trent and his encouragement to all of us to be thankful for what we have, I know I definitely need that and I want to lift up Vicki from Southern California and Tammy, who is in remission from ovarian cancer. I really want to lift you ladies up to the Lord, for how much you are just laying at the foot of the cross and trusting God to give you peace in such a hard time. And, I also want to pray for Giovanni whose whole family is sick with the coronavirus. Lord, just bring Your healing, bring Your Holy Spirit and touch Giovanni and his family in this long, frustrating battle with this virus and I just ask that You would bless him. And family, it's my first time calling in and I could really use some prayers this week as I'm sending my 18-year-old son to a youth with a mission discipleship training school in Hawaii and he’s gonna be gone for six months and it's his first time away from home and I'm so excited for him but it's also really hard for this mama. So, if you could lift him up just send him blessings and prayers for an amazing time. I really love this community. You guys are an incredible blessing. Thank you for praying. Keep it up.
Hello Daily Audio family. My name is Sharon I'm calling to ask for prayer for my daughter, Sharon. She's been told she needs open-heart surgery, she's really, we’re really afraid. Each time we speak to a doctor we’re afraid and she starts crying and I start crying. I'm asking that you pray that, pray, send prayers for us that we can get through this situation and come out whole on the other side. I pray with her and I know that God can do all things and I prayed that He will give us the strength, first and foremost, that she doesn't need the surgery and that we will get a second opinion. We just need prayer right now family. Thank you.
Hello my DAB family this is Minnesota Aruka Regina. I haven't talked to you in a while, just want to tell you how much I love you and care about each and every one of you. On September 21st Danielle, I thank you so much for giving us an update on that 19-year-old girl Lord, it just really made me kind of cry and I want to lift her up in prayer. Loving Father, I just am so grateful for You being there for this young 19-year-old gal who was adopted…abducted and violated Father. Thank You for seeing her and for being faithful to find Your precious lost sheep. Lord, I just pray right now that You please speak love into her traumatic soul where she's been hurt and crushed and bruised Lord. I pray that You just reach her heart, let her know that You cried with her in those days that she was gone and it hurts Your spirit. But You were already making a plan for her and You are now helping her. Lord, I pray that You heal her. Let her know that You love her and You care about her and You are a God that can restore Lord. Bring someone into her life that can…can help her to be able to process everything and to break all of the bonds of this troubled man. May she not feel guilty and shameful for what is happening. It's not her fault. Help her to forgive. Help her to learn to love and to be loved again. We give You all the glory and honor in the name of the Father and the Son. Amen.
Hey DAB fam this is Laura in Eugene. I just want to call and lift up Val in Vegas in prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, I just lift Val up to You, I pray for strength and courage as she recovers from her recent surgery. Lord, I pray for her medical team as decisions for what happens next are coming and I pray that You would help Val to rest in Your peace and Your comfort and Your care, that she could just feel that peace that passes all comprehension Lord. I pray that You would continue to be with her and guide her through this hard time but I’m just so grateful that she’s moving forward and getting the care that she needs Lord. Father, just keep watch over her. Thank You. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.
Hi my name is Maggie Mae and I’m calling in certain dyer straights. My whole family, I just found out my whole family is sick. My three grandchildren, my son. My grandson has got a fever of 105, they don’t know what is wrong with him. He’s only two years old. My older grandson who’s 17 he’s sick with RSV, they said that they don’t know, I don’t even know what that is. My granddaughter is so sick, the only one that’s not sick is the mother. I am beside myself with my grandson who is so, so sick. He’s so sick he’s burning. I pray the blood of Jesus over Armanie over Arianna over Marc Anthony. He just lost his father. I pray for my son Marc Anthony. They’re not saved. Please, God don’t take my family. Please, God don’t take my family. Please, oh please, don’t take my family. Please. Thank you, I’m sorry for the emotions but I feel so hopeless. I feel so hopeless. Please pray for them. Please take care of Dominic, Arrianna and Marc Anthony. Please, thank you.
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Strengthen the Believers
Nails
1st Degree: 3 Nails Pendant - (Learning Gods Sacrifice)
What Christ did for you. (Forgiving others, making peace, riding vices, self reflection)
Chapter Reading:
John/Acts/Galatians/ Ephesians/ Philippians
Document notes of chapter reading in journal
Actions
* Ask for forgiveness to as many as you remember wronging. Retrace past events and try to arrange meetings or phone conversations to make amends.
*Ask 12 elderly people what they would do different if they could start back young and do life over. Write down the answers and share them with your overseer.
* Take two days devoted to spending time with a watchmen. If your group is new, take two days decayed to spending time hanging. Out with your group getting to know each other.
Document what you have learned, and share it with the overseer, or with your group as a collective.
Cross
2nd Degree: The Cross Pendant- Denying self (sacrifice of following Christ)
Calculate the cost
Chapter Reading: Luke/Romans/1 Peter/2nd Peter/1st Corinthians/2nd Corinthians
* Give what you don’t have to give.
Everyone is different and according to their own heart let them find Gods answer. God himself will lead them them In the direction they should go. For others, this is a time of prayer, do not try to create influence from your opinion or what you choose. Allow them time to walk in relationship with God, and he will make it known to them the direction they should take.
Eagle
3rd Degree: The Eagle Pendant - Trusting God
Provision. (Getting out of your comfort zone, trusting Gods supply)
Learning to step out and trust God. Learning patience and endurance, Getting over the spirit of offense, learning to overcome people falling away from you. Learning to endure persecutions and misunderstandings. Learning to draw on Gods supply and not the worlds supply. Freeing yourself if expectations.
*Set up an outreach of generosity personally requesting people to join
*Go evangelize in the city and invite a team with you, proclaiming “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!" Explain to them repentance is turning from your ways and seeking Gods way. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.
* Start a prayer book for your brothers and your family. Take a binder and write the names of as many people as you can think of and pray over that book daily.
*Privately perform a selfless act of Generosity
Chapter Reading: Mark/Hebrews/Colossians/
1 Thessalonians/2nd Thessalonians
Hook
4th Degree: Fish Hook Pendant
(The great commission in action)
Walking out the great commission through action and in truth. Learning how to share your testimony with others. Inviting people to come and participate in your weekly group gatherings.
*Do 8 outreaches focused street evangelism and prayer
*One Outreach or other event held by you
*Address your brothers of your intentions of wanting to become a watchman
Chapter Reading: Matthew/1st Timothy/2nd Timothy/ Titus/Colossians
Watchmen
5th Degree: The Watchmen Pendant
(Teach others through action and Truth)
Chapter Reading: 1st John/2nd John/ 3rd John
Jude/Revelations
*Wash each disciples feet of your group
* Help in homeless or prison ministry
*Commit to tithing to FTP The Movement, so we can continue to expand across the nations, providing refreshment in our local communities, and communities throughout the world.
A large army is hard to move. It has many minds, and many motives, and is extremely hard to please. But a highly trained group of 6-12 men who have been commissioned, are unified in body and mind, have proven to be the most strategic, effective groups in the world.
This approach to discipleship is an absolute game changer. This is the way to bring men who are far from Christ to Christ, and walk his will out through action and truth. Don’t ever forsake the assembly. It’s the very thing that spurs us into action, to represent Christ in a lost and dying world, and to bear much fruit! Never settle for a watered down gatherings again. Instead be encouraged and commissioned with willing brothers and sisters who are there to walk your faith out through the transparency of love, care, generosity, forgiveness, and compassion.
I have been in leadership for sometime and have seen many stages of what gatherings look like. From traditional church gatherings, to social circles, to groups that gather to complain about their problems and feel better, but never take action to change them. To this I say, when you gather, it should no longer be about what others can do for you, it’s about what you can do for others. Pay special attention to those who are in need, lead them by example. You will find when you belive right, you will love right. Correctly addressing your attention to your savior, and not your sin, making you effective, and not ineffective for the kingdom of God.
When you gather, take communion with one another in remembrance of the Lord. “For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.” Gather together and ask how everyone has been, and if ther is any prayers needed. Then read scripture to build each other up, and plan out your missions into your local community to provide refreshment. You should be as active as possible in the community, looking to provide refreshment to as many as possible, using your various giftings.
When you do this, your group may continue to grow. When this occours, carefully, and prayerfully appoint leaders. If appointed as leader, do fall victim to pride or the mindset of leadership, it’s a vain pursuit. You who seek to lead, must be the servant of all. If it is your gifting from God, rely on the Holy Spirit to walk boost in the position, above reproach, exhorting, edifying, and correcting, with all authority. Seek out everything in scripture on the topic of overseers, Timothy, Titus, etc.
Never let groups get larger than 25, twelve is the preferred size. To keep overhead to a minimum meet in places like homes, garages, shops, etc. If meeting in public, speak only words that would edify others if they were to overhear your conversation. Be a light in dark places at all times.
Gatherings should always be about discipleship, and taking action in your local community. Bring all of your tithes and offerings to the storehouse. They should always be donated to FTP THE MOVEMENT INC. through FTP app, Venmo, Cash App, or check via mail. Do not make cash donations to the local group unless specifically raising money outside of tithes and offerings. The tithes and offerings are collected and distributed towards advancing the gospel, providing funding for evangelist in the mission field, and refreshment through wholesale outlets so that each group can bring refreshment to their local community. When we pool our resources together as a collective, we are much more effective in our provisions and overall mission, which is the expansion of the gospel to all nation’s!
Each new group that feels a prompting in their heart to start should have at least two or more people coming together dedicated to consistently. You should decide on a name for your group. Each group will be considered a battalion. Each battalion is given a number. Upon starting you must submit the name of your group, names of each person in that group, their phone number, email, and specific talents and skill trades. When you gather have a sign in sheet of who is in attendance and submit it to [email protected].
This information is collected to keep our non profit status, tax write offs for donors, and to meet specific needs in your particular areas. For example: Say an old lady needs Sheetrock repair in Savannah, Georgia, and Tim Rogers has the time, and knows how to repair it. It allows us to give our members the opportunity (not obligation) to help meet the needs of others, in accordance to Gods will.
FTP does not belong to you, you cannot take ownership of it because it is an ideal. The ideal comes to all nations as a symbol of hope, a lifestyle, that when seen in action is the living unified body of Christ in motion. Do not be attracted to numbers, be attracted to the dedication of action, and the continuous expansion of the gospel.
This is bigger than the ego, bigger than a denomination, bigger than any one contributor could do itself. This is the reformation of the church in the last days. It’s my heart cry that each individual, only through the prompting of the Holy Spirit, take careful and prayerful consideration in joining with us. It’s not for everyone, but we do belive that it is for you. Search your heart men of God. Put to side the differences that seek to cause division, and let’s leverage every opportunity, and resource we have to bring the body of Christ back to the forefront of humanity. Let it be such a loving force of Christ that it cannot be ignored.
““ ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’”Acts 2:17-21
“Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. “If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me. “All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”John 14:12-21, 23-27
This is a calling to arms, this is for leaders across the nation to search their spirits, and to step forward In mission. Let’s create an infrastructure of resources no longer dedicating funds to stagnant over head cost. Let’s combine our time, talents, and resources to make an impact like never before. There’s much more I want to say to you concerning these matters. My heart burns with the fire of The Holy Spirit as warriors of God cry out “Amen” to these very words. That forgiveness be found with all. All debts be cleared, all animosity and resentment melts to the wayside. Let all division be crippled this very moment in Jesus precious and Holy name. No calloused hearts, no anger amongst men, just the body of Christ in action to the end of age! God be with us always, and protect your families as you make him your refuge and dwell in the shadow of the most high. If you have any prayer requests, specific questions, or want to start a battalion; contact me if you have my number, if not email me directly at [email protected]. We will respond as quickly as possible. Much more will be written especially in each ranking and the messages to come for each. Even without them you can succeed Holy start today and create disciples like never before.
Remeber, people are in need. It’s our opportunity to go out to them the same way Christ did, meeting them where they are at, not wait on them to come to us. It’s time to fly only one banner, and that banner is Christ and Christ crucified. I love you with all of my heart FTP. You have been sent, will you answer the call?
“And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”
From the front lines, ES
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General Conference October 2019 Sunday Sessions
Morning
Garret W. Gong
We find ourselves becoming free, alive, real
Divine covenants become a source of love for and from God
Comfort the Hurt we feel
Our God is a God of Covenant
God's ordinances and covenants are universal
All things work together for our good if we keep commandments and covenants
Along life'a path, we may lose faith in God, but he never loses faith in us
He will helpnus, one step at a time
We can ask God with a sincere heart
BOM speaks of ancient and modern covenant to you
Alma: enter into a covenant with the Lord and serve him that you might feel joy
Priesthood blessings heal, comfort, and council
Covenant marriage is supernal and eternal- me becomes we
When learn to pray with real intent - strong spiritual confirmation
Genealogy strengthens us
Christina B. Franco
We know who we are - God's children.
God provided perfect plan to his purpose
Satan is an enemy to God's plan
Blessing of comfort and protection - also gave blessing of knowlege and direction
You can't miss the missionaries
"Get into my car! You're coming home to teach me!"
Every day before leaving house, ask Heavenly Father to guide her to someone who needs the church
Gathering of Israel
Dieter F. Uchtdorf
YASSSSSSSSSS
Lord of the Rings - Unremarkable Hobbit presented with remarkable adventure
Most hobbits don't want adventure. Challenging, dangerous
Bilbo leaves comfort behind and embarks
This story is our story too
We knew we would make many mistakes along the way
Potential was well worth the risk
Metaphorical spiders and trolls
Discipleship is like learning to play the piano
Day will come
The only way to progress is to help others progress
Spirit is enlarged and we walk a little taller
Fill heart with pure love of Christ and leave no room for rankor, judgement, and shaming
We joyfully accept that grest commission
Regardless of who a person is or what they do, we invite them to join
Get a good nights rest, eat a good meal, and start off first thing in the morning
Nearly distracted by messy house, but good friend (Gandalf) beckoned him to come
Take courage, compassion, and continue on your journey
Please come back, join again, make us stronger
Come, come and see what the marvelous journey is all about
Talk to missionaries
Walter F. Gonzalez
Blessings come in due time
Accept the Lord's will
Thy will be done
Humble attitude and sincere desire
We can feel broken due to our circumstances
We can place our will into his hands
God's face is brighter than the sun
Fumble towards a God I can trust because he loves us
Power of hope
Savior wants to help us be clean
Accept his will, not our own
He can heal us and lift us up
You can be mended because he loves you
"I will make thou clean
Gary E. Stevenson
Son with white paintbrush
"Be careful, there are a lot of skunks out there" - Uncle Grover
Blissfully unaware of the impending threat
Unsatisfied with truth
Satan would have us question things and replace them
Moses was in a high mountain and in the similitude of God's only Begotten
"Who art thou, for I am a son of God!"
There is much we can learn from Moses' response to the adversary
Moses did not yield
Lord blessed Moses for his obedience
God gives us commandments through his servants
God communes with prophets
Adjustments to procedures and ordinances
Adversary always tricks you into believing he is something hes not
May we recognise Satan's deceptions for what they are
We are the saints of the Almighty God
Russell M. Nelson
Mutual Commitment to Religious Freedom, offered financial Assistance to repair Mosques hurt in Christchurch
Young Blind 14 YO woman's letter to Prophet comparing herself to him (funny AND sweet)
God turns our hearts to the well being of others
The church's humanitarian outreach began in the 1984 fast for Africa's drought. 6.4 mill dollars made by the churchwide one day fast
LDS Charities - more than 2 bill dollars raised in aid throughout world since 1984
Go hungry to help others who are hungry
Power of the law and spirit of the fast
For I was enhungered and ye gave me meat [...] Ye have done it unto me
129 bishops storehouses around world
Almost 1 in 9 pf earth's inhabitants are malnourished
Church supplied emergency supplies for refugees from 56 countries
Afternoon
Eyring
Surely nobody would reject the offer of more happiness
Path to being more holy
Faith in Christ, Exercise it
Certifying Worthiness
You have never been here before, you are remembering a moment before you were born
Miracle of happiness from growing holiness
Happy years of service in temple
Sometimes we feel denied happiness
Job - holy and perfect
Job ready to see his trials in a higher and holier way
Do what is needed for God to change us
Repentance is accepting change
Hans T. Boom
Without sound of Gong- which was only a minor part- performance would not have been the same, even if it was costly to transport
Some of you might feel so overburdened that you don't even feel like you are on the path of life
We must minister to each other
Repentance is a daily process
Attempts to ask of God give us a clearer understanding of who we are and why we are needed
Let us rejoice together
We are all children of a heavenly father who loves us
M. Russell Ballard
Thou shalt live together in love for the result of the loss of those who die
Daily consecrated efforts to keep family together
Watched musical with his wife over and over again (Alzheimer's)
Liive each day together with hearts filled with gratitude
Reunion-Plan of happiness
Physically suffered but spirit was strong, resiliant, and pure.
How sweet, how comforting -Hinkley on Marriage
I find it astonishing how this apostle is worrying about whether or not he's living right. Big mood We stan.
Ongoing battle between physicalnbody and spirits
How can we empathize our eternal spiritual nature
Veil of forgetfulness makes us lose sight of God and spiritual nature
Choose to recieve eternal joy
Slow down a bit and think where you are now
♡Peter M. Johnson
You are wonderful, you are beautiful
All human beings are created in the image of God
You are the elect sons and daughters of God
Deception, distraction, discouragement: Satan's 3 D's of destruction
I really like this guy already
Remember who you are- a child of God
If we do not understand who we are, then it is difficult to understand who we can become
Technology is amazing but it can distract us, be careful, not casual
Do not compare yourself to others
Finished reading BOM each semester through doctorate program
Peace be with you
Let your heart be not troubled
Love God with heart might mind and strength
See Family Friends and Neighbors as Children of God
Pray every day
Read and study BOM every day, with a question in mind
Powerfully partake of the sacrament every week
Ulysses Soares
Accept the savior's invitation and you will expel your loneliness
There is always hope in God for LGBTQ individuals
Accept the invitation even if you've committed serioud sins
Savior's Grace is not limited
We can't repent for others, but we can forgive them
Trust in the Savior's promise
Be humble and trust in God
The Lord's timing is different than ours
Be ready to accept the Lord's will
Neil L. Anderson
FRUIT!
Fruit has long been. Treasured delicacy
Scriptures compare good fruit to Godly things
Most precious fruit = Plan of redemption
Partaking of the fruit means we embrace ordinances
Staying true to the Lord is still not easily done
Spacious building
Adversary's construction crews are working overtime
Don't allow others to turn you away from the blessings of the fruit
"I just pray for the use of my hands" - never recieved it
Trustedbin God's plans
"We would have to go through hard things, we would make mistakes"
Russell M. Nelson
Become more holy
Personal Holiness
Temples
Prepare yourself to bring blessings
General conference next April will be very unique 🤔🤔🤔
Read Joseph Smith's account of the first vision b4 April
Read BOM b4 April
#lds#ldsconf#lds general conference#lds church#lds general conference 2019#general conference#mormon#latter day saint#mormon teen#the church of jesus christ of latter day saints
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The Harvest Gate Podcast - Episode 1
Below is a written transcript of Episode 1 of The Harvest Gate Podcast.
Now available on harvestgate.org/podcast , Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcasting app or service.
New episodes every Sunday at 6AM.
Episode 1: What is Harvest Gate?
*Intro Music*
Greg: Hey this is Greg
Zack: And Zack
Greg: Welcome to the very first Harvest Gate Podcast. We are delighted to be talking to you about this project. And we’re excited to welcome you to our very first podcast, we’re going to be talking about Harvest Gate, tracking our growth and development, keeping you up to date on events and news that’s going on. But for this very first episode, we want to take some time to introduce ourselves, Harvest Gate and everything about this project. So Zack why don’t you start, tell us a little about yourself.
Zack: Yea, my name is Zack Morgan. I am a pastor here in Newark, Ohio. I’ve lived in this area for pretty much my entire life. I spent 6 years away in the air force and I came back to the church that I grew up in as a pastor which was an interesting dynamic. I’ve had some great leaders that have guided me along the way and have helped shape a lot of my thinking, a lot of my behaviors. It has led to this really cool…what I believe is the vision of Harvest Gate that I’m excited to talk about with you Greg.
Greg: I’m excited too! We’ll dig deeper into exactly what Harvest Gate is and where that idea came from. But first, do you want to tell everyone a bit about how we met and our relationship, how we got here?
Zack: Yea. That is a fun story. About a year and a half ago I was playing on a church softball team and Greg and his wife Emily came to the game and that was an interesting dynamic about how you came in the first place.
Greg: Yea, I mean, it is a funny story as well. We didn't really know you guys, we didn't have any connection to your church, even though its less than a mile from our house. We had a mutual friend that Emily knows from a group of ladies that she meets with, that her husband played some game that I played and said, "Hey, we should get together and hang out!". They invited us to play softball and I think at some point we discovered a mutual affection for tennis, which sort of led into, how can we get some exercise outside of softball, let's meet up on Fridays for tennis.
Zack: And what Greg didn't tell me is that he's a really good tennis player and I kind of just played for just for fun. So Greg and I started playing tennis, and that was really fun, but then the weather got cold so we started getting coffee and so we started getting coffee. We've been getting coffee for about a year.
Greg: Yea, over a year.
Zack: One of the fun dynamics between our relationship, I'm a pastor obviously, but Greg is not a follower of the Christian way. He believes what I would call the Christian ethic but does not identify as a Christian himself. Greg, would you talk about that a little bit?
Greg: You know, I think everyone has their, sort of journey or path that they've been on. I grew up going to church and while I think I didn't totally buy-in to everything about it, I really picked up on Christian values and how you treat other people. Treating people with kindness and loving people even if you have differences with them. It's been certainly a topic of conversation and discussion in my marriage where my wife is a very strong believer and I'm less so, but we agree on wanting to pass on those values to our son, in a way that is impactful and meaningful for him in his life. The thing that meant a lot to me about our relationship, and getting coffee, and talking and all the conversations that we had is that I never felt this pressure, that I was any less than anyone else because I didn't believe in it. We could have honest conversations about what we thought about or how we felt about things and there wasn't any judgement or pressure like, "We'd be better friends if you were a believer" or something like that.
Zack: And I just love you authenticity, you don't pretend to be something you aren't. In honesty, apart from Tennis and Coffee, there's not a whole lot that we share in common, but we've developed a really good friendship, I would consider you one of my best friends.
Greg: Yea, absolutely.
Zack: Can you tell me a little bit about why, as a non-believer, why you would want to join a church plant? I love it. I'm also really intrigued by it.
Greg: When you outline it that way it doesn't make a ton of sense. I think it's a combination of several things. My wife's passion for the project is really exciting and that gets me really excited about it. But also, I look at not just the church side of it but all the positive impact you're trying to have in and around central Ohio and the long term vision of how that can grow. It appeals to me because there are too many things in our world these days that are negative, that divide people when we would really come together to do good things, regardless of what we believe or how we feel about certain things. Why not try and make a positive impact.
Zack: You and I have had this conversation before. I believe that this is what the Kingdom is all about. Whether you are a believer or not a believer, coming together to bring about God's redemptive work to the world. You can do that whether you are a believer in Jesus and his ways or not. Greg, does this seem like a good time to talk about what's going on with Harvest Gate, how we got to this point?
Greg: Yea, let's dig in a little deeper on what Harvest Gate is, what exactly it is that we're talking about our involvement in then we can maybe we can get into our related experience and what we're bringing to the project.
Zack: I'll try to be brief about this but my story with church planting goes back to 2009. In 2009, my wife and I, Liz, were in a church in Florida while I was in the military and our church was wanting to start small groups and at the time I had just fallen in love with everything church. I wanted everything to do with the church. I heard they were doing small groups and I said, "OH! Can I lead one?" They said sure, and I said, what is a small group? So they kind of laid it out. I said, "Is there a curriculum or anything like that, that I need to go by?" No. Being the naive, young man I was, I thought, well I only have the bible to go off of so that's a good start.
So I remember in Acts, chapter 2, there is a part where it says, "And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the breaking of bread, to fellowship and to receiving of the lord's supper." And in verse 47 it says, "and the lord added daily, to their numbers, those who are being saved."
So I was like, alright, well I guess we'll just go with this. Our small group started out with 8 people and like every church in America in the 2000's our slogan was, "Love God, Love People and Server your world."
I went through that passage and I said, "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, that would be 'Love God'."
And to fellowship, that's 'Love People' and broke it down that way. Our group started out with 8 people and within about 3 months we were averaging 35 people or so.
Greg: Wow!
Zack: That group became church for people. We did communion, we did worship, we did teaching, we ate a lot, we laughed a lot, we cried a lot and it just became beautiful. It was at that point where I felt, looking back in hindsight, I had no idea what church planting was, I was like, "Oh we should just start a church!"
Greg: Yea
Zack: And by god's grace we didn't because I was an idiot back then...I'm still an idiot, but less so.
Greg: And humble.
Zack: Yes. I lacked humility back then and it was a piece of pride for me. So that's where my heart for church planting began and then we'll fast forward. In 2014, I got out of the military, I became a pastor at the church where I'm currently serving here in Newark.
In 2016, at the behest of my lead pastor, who is a multiplication guru, he encouraged me to do a church planters assessment and so, Liz and I went through a 2 or 3 day thing.
Greg: Liz, your wife, of course.
Zack: Yes, Liz is my wife. So its a 3 day journey where, basically, you're being...interrogated is not the right word...interviewed about your life and your life experience for probably 8 hours a day. Ultimately what they said, they give you 3 options, they say, "Yes, you possess the qualities to be a lead church planter right now."
"Yes, you do possess these things but you need some significant training or coaching."
or "No".
Liz and I received a no, sorry, we received a yes! We were ecstatic! That was in 2016. We left there thinking, "Yea, this is awesome, still feeling called to church planting but we don't feel released from where it is we're currently serving."
So in 2017, I went to a church planters conference in Florida, called Exponential, which I feel now is a great time to plug Exponential. If you are interested in church planting or multiplication or discipleship, Exponential is a fantastic conference that I highly recommend, it is the largest gathering of church planters and multipliers around the world. Something like 5000 people come out to that.
It was there at Exponential that I met a fellow church planter, who was actually doing it, I felt like an imposter because I hadn't actually planted a church. But I met him, his name is Cory Dorian, he is out in Washington or Oregon area. He got permission from his district to buy a house in a neighborhood. Basically, they just did a house church and their ministry, their vision, was to do everything in their neighborhood for the neighborhood.
They met in their house but they did all their shopping, all their haircutting, everything happened in their neighborhood.
So i asked Cory, "This is fantastic! But what are you doing, how are you finding that you can support yourself apart from being paid by the district."
Greg: Financially.
Zack: Financially, right. And he said, "Uhh, I haven't figured that out yet."
I loved that vision but it felt like all the wind was let out of the sails because it's like, well, I'm not going to be able to find a district or a place...I'm not going to be able to find a sugar daddy essentially...
Greg: And that's important for you because you have a wife, you have 3 kids...
Zack: Yea!
Greg: You've got to support that whole household as well.
Zack: And if I had a really rich Uncle or something like that who, what was that movie, Baxter's Millions? Brewster's Millions? Richard Prior? It was a great movie, anyways!.
But that was not the case for me. I started dreaming, "How could we do this?" And I was reminded, I feel like God reminded me of this, that I had a dream to open a coffeehouse before I was called into ministry, but once I was called into ministry I thought, "Well, that dream is just going to have to die."
And so I let that go and hopped into ministry.
But here in 2017 at Exponential I feel like God gave me a dream to marry both the marketplace and the church together. God gave me this vision, I called home, I called Liz, and I said, "Liz. God gave me this vision, here's the vision."
And she said, "Well its great that he gave you that vision, but he did not give that to me."
Greg: Uh oh.
Zack: Liz continued, "If he wants us to do this, he's going to have to talk to me about that."
Again, all the wind out of my sails.
Greg: Yea.
Zack: At that point, I put church planting in my back pocket and I thought, "Well, maybe one day down the road, 10 or 20, 30 years from now, God will let us plant a church."
Greg: Yea.
Zack: So in 2018, Liz and I began the process of becoming missionaries, to go to Vienna, Austria. It was a great process, it was about a 9 month process where we went through that application process. Through that we were getting lots of affirmations from the people who would have essentially benefited from it, the people who would be sending us. But what we were missing were affirmations from people who were close to us, like our family and our spiritual mentors, who were surrounding us.
For the last 4 years, I've been working on my Master's of Divinity with a specialization in church planting and multiplication through Wesley Seminary. One of the classes I had to take for my specialization was a class called "Launch"
By this point in the story, we're in 2019, January of 2019.
Greg: About a year ago.
Zack: About a year ago. Almost to the day. One of the first assignments was, give an autobiography of your experience or your involvement with church planting and multiplication. I essentially was typing out everything that I just shared, "Oh I felt called to plant a church 10 years ago...here it is...10 years later...haven't planted...woe is me."
As I am writing that paper, I get a text message from my pastor, Chris Dyer, and he says, "Zack, do you still feel called to plant a church?"
And I was like, "........Yes."
And he said, "Because I have been talking with Ed Love, who is the director of multiplication for the Wesleyan church, and he thinks that I just need to push you out of the nest and let you fly."
Greg: Mmhmm...works for birds.
Zack: Works for birds! I remember I screen-shotted it and sent it to Liz and remember, we're still going through the process of trying to become missionaries at this point. I sent it to Liz and I said, "So things might be changing."
And little did we know, that moment set us on a course to birth what we are now talking about, Harvest Gate. So that's what kind of led us to this moment. That class was an amazing class, it helped us put essentially to paper, everything that had been in my head and had been ethereal, had now become a reality.
Greg: It's been a long journey, there's been a lot of things that have sort of led you to that point. Now that we're here, define Harvest Gate. What is Harvest Gate? You talked about the coffeehouse, the house churches, package those together for us, for the listener and explain what that is.
Zack: Yea, so it's interesting. I grew up in what I would call a traditional kind of church. And I'm not talking about the music necessarily. It's a place where you go on a given day of the week and that's what we called church. But as I've studied the scriptures and as I've studied church history and things like that, what I have found is that the movement of God's people often happens in homes.
What we say at Harvest Gate, what would be our mission statement essentially is, "Connecting faith to families, communities and marketplaces."
I heard some statistics a few years ago, and these numbers aren't exactly correct but they are close enough. Again, I believe I was at Exponential. And I heard a pastor say this, he said, "83% of pastors, in the last 12 months, do not have any friends who are non-church goers." And that broke my heart.
Another thing he said is, "Something like 63% of pastors, in the last 12 months, have not personally led someone to Jesus."
I remember thinking, "We have to do something that is different!" If we're trying to tell our people that they need to be loving their neighbor and caring for their neighbor and loving those who are different than them and loving those who have different ideologies, how are we going to teach them these things if we ourselves aren't doing these things.
Greg: Yea!
Zack: Which again is another reason why I love our relationship because we don't agree on everything.
Greg: It really is a relationship that, in my head, wouldn't make sense. Because I have often felt uncomfortable at church. I've had a handful of interactions where somebody comes up to you and says, "Oh, are you saved?!" and it sort of feels aggressive and an invasion of...Well, I can choose to believe what I want to believe. I don't necessarily want to share that with everyone, though I obviously am now...
It is an interesting dynamic about how we got here and how it just works. And there is no...I don't ever feel that uncomfortable pressure or bias towards believes versus non-believes or something like that. I can just be whoever I am. Thanks for that!
Zack: And that doesn't mean that we don't talk about spiritual matters.
Greg: Yea!
Zack: I've told you before, if I didn't want you to believe what I believe, then what I believe is not actually worth it. Or I'm just a jerk for not wanting you to believe that.
Actually, Greg, the reason that we are doing our church is exactly for people like you, who have been hurt by the church, burned by the church, who don't want to associate. I'm not saying you don't necessarily want to associate with church.
Greg: Sure.
Zack: People who just feel disenfranchised. There have been some studies, some more anecdotal, some more legitimate, that have said, "If the church as it stands now, as it is traditionally configured, were to operate at a 100%, we would only reach about 40% of the population."
When I say traditional church, I'm talking about brick and mortar church, where you go to a certain place on a certain day of the week and if you're really spiritual, one other time throughout the week. Maybe you're part of a small group or something like that.
So we have roughly 95% of churches in America, who are going after 40% (of the population), while maybe 5% are going after the other 60% of people. Harvest Gate, I believe, is a church that wants to go after the 60%. Those people who will never step foot into a traditional type of church.
We want to engage people in what we would call the third place of life. I remember reading a book called, "The Story of Christianity" by Husto Gonzalez, who is a really famous church historian. There is a passage in there that really just struck me. He said this, he said, "In truth, most missionary work was not carried out by the apostles but rather by the countless and nameless Christians, who for different reasons, persecution, business or missionary calling, traveled from place to place taking the news of the gospel with them."
As I was thinking about that and pondering that, I couldn't help but to think, Paul became a tent maker, he used his tent making to build relationships with people and used that to share the gospel.
His partners in ministry, Pricilla and Aquila, were tent makers. You have Lydia, who was the first one, the first person baptized in Europe and there is a church that met in her home. She was a seller of fine, purple linen. The writer of the book Luke and Acts, Luke, was a physician. Each of these people used their vocation in order to pastor people, essentially. And that is where the idea of Harvest Gate came from.
What we want to do is open a coffeehouse where we can engage people in the third place of life. There was a book written called "The Great Good Place" and it identifies 3 different places of life. You have the first place which is home, the second place which is work and the third place which is, kind of defined by neutral ground, it is a place where everyone feels welcome, it is a level place. Conversation is the main activity. It is easily accessible and there is accommodation for everybody. It has regulars. You think of Cheers.
Greg: Right, right.
Zack: Low profile, the mood is playful. You refer to it as a home away from home. I have a local coffeehouse that I attend, that I frequent pretty regularly.
Greg: Well and we go there together, and whenever we're there, there are maybe a dozen people or so, over the hour or hour and a half that we're talking, that know you, have seen you at church, have you seen you around town.
They certainly remember you by name, some are just "Hello!" and some are "Oh how's the family, how's the kids" and they certainly really do know you.
Zack: And it's not just me, it's the case for you to.
Greg: That's true. I have, maybe by accident, come to meet and know lots of people through my relationships with people at both your church and another church here in town. All of a sudden...I should clarify, I'm not originally from Newark, I moved here from Columbus. My wife Emily is from Newark. And there were a lot of times, maybe even a lot of years, soon after I moved out here where I felt very isolated, didn't know anybody.
I've spent almost the last 8 years working from home and working from home is great but you don't meet anyone working from home, just your dogs and your family. How I feel now emotionally and mentally is so much better. Having these relationships with people, where I live and having met you and us being able to get together regularly to talk and share what's going on in our lives has made a huge difference.
Zack: I think that community aspect is really important.
Greg: Yea.
Zack: This is not the case entirely, across the Christian realm but a lot of times in the church, community or relationships are kind of sterile. We might have a few close-knit relationships but there's not a general sense of community.
Greg: Right.
Zack: We might say that we have a community of people, but we really only see each other once a week.
Greg: Yea..
Zack: Maybe twice a week. And so what I love about our relationship, maybe not daily, but pretty close to that.
Greg: You are a master of the gif by the way.
Zack: Thank you! It is a skill that I...
*laughter*
Zack: We communicate pretty frequently. I would say that our...I could be mistaken...This is honest moments here with Zack and Greg. I feel like our relationship when it first started was kind of awkward.
Greg: Maybe. I think we were both figuring it out. It's a believe and a non-believer at probably extreme ends of that spectrum. I'm not an active non-believer, I'm not dissuading people, I'm comfortable where I am.
Zack: Yea.
Greg: And I think we were both trying to figure out, are we going to offend each other? Are we going to be uncomfortable with these types of conversations? We figured out pretty quickly, no, we're fine having honest discussions about it. We can come and go from that topic without it feeling forced or uncomfortable, like oh, we have to talk about that big cross-shaped elephant in the room.
Zack: Exactly, yea and it kind of sounds like an intro to a bad joke. A pastor and an agnostic walk into a coffeehouse.
We're hoping that through the coffeehouse we're able to engage with people in a relationship. I have a family member who was asked about this, and they said, "So is this like a Christian coffeehouse that's like, here's your coffee now if you want prayer step over to this line and we'll have someone sent over to pray for you."
No, that would just be weird and uncomfortable.
Greg: I can verify that. That I would also feel weird and uncomfortable about that.
Zack: I would feel weird and uncomfortable about that and I'm a pastor.
Greg: Well there ya go.
Zack: This is a for-profit coffeehouse that I'll be the owner of.
Greg: Yea.
Zack: The idea is that we want to engage the world in a really good, quality service, quality product. Here's the thing, I believe that our worship and our work are intimately tied together.
Greg: Yea. Everybody on the Harvest Gate team is reading a book about this.
Zack: Yea.
Greg: About how your work and how what you do should be fulfilling and tied to what you love to do.
Zack: The Hebrew word for the word "work" in the old testament, Genesis 2, says that, "God put Adam in the garden to work the field and take care of it." That word, work, is the Hebrew word "aved" and it literally is used throughout the old testament to mean, service or service to god. That word is often used synonymously with the word worship.
I believe that one of the best ways that I can share the gospel with people, is through doing really really good work.
Greg: Yea.
Zack: And treating people really well and there is a saying, I don't know if you're aware of this saying Greg but St Francis of Asisi said, "Preach often and when necessary use words."
I think it is a great sentiment but I think what has happened in the church is we just go, "Well I don't need to say anything because I'm doing it with my life."
I think that words are important and that we need to have those conversations which is why, I think, you and I have these conversations.
Greg: Yea.
Zack: But...so we want to use the coffeehouse to engage people into relationships so we can invite them into discipleship and then into our house church. Which is what we're going to be, it's not going to be a building, it's going to be wherever people live and work.
It doesn't matter if you live in an 8,000 foot mansion, which if you do, please invite me over, I want to see that.
Greg: Right, yea! Absolutely!
Zack: Or if you live in a studio apartment, it doesn't matter. You can have church right there. Engaging in those things that the early church engaged in. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the breaking of bread, to communion and to fellowship. You can do those things all from your home.
So we want to engage people in the first, the second and the third place of life.
Greg: So I think the coffeehouse ties back into the example you gave earlier, and I apologize I forget who you were specifically referring to but, when they were talking about starting this house church and they felt called to do that, it was great and they felt very passionately about that but how do you support your family. The coffeehouse is really going to do that, its going to support your family to enable you to do the stuff in that community.
We should clarify, we're in Newark, Ohio right now, Harvest Gate is going to be in Columbus, you're not opening a coffeehouse and going to sometimes be there, you're going to move there, to live within short distance of the coffeehouse, or at least that's the plan.
Zack: Yes and thank you for bringing that up. Our big dream is that we want to have a transforming presence in every zip code in Columbus. In Columbus, there are 49 zip codes.
Greg: That's a lot of zip codes.
Zack: That's a lot of zip codes. So that means we want to have either a business, and it doesn't have to be a coffeehouse. A business and/or a house church in every zip code in Columbus. You're absolutely correct, Greg, that will be my vocation, that will be the way that I sustain our life and our family.
Here's one of the things I love about what we're doing, through the coffeehouse, 10% of all of our profits are going to go towards starting other businesses or other churches, or other faith communities. Greg, let’s say that, in this hypothetical situation you become a believer and you've always wanted to start Greg's yoga studio.
Greg: *laughs* I can think of a couple other businesses I might start first, but lets go with Yoga, I can aspire to something...
Zack: We would then launch you out, through the pool of money essentially that is coming in through Harvest Gate Coffeehouse to help start Greg's Yoga Studio. We want to be a place that is a blessing to other individuals, yes, but also to the community as well.
Which informs our name. The name Harvest Gate comes from 3 things, Jesus says, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few, so ask the lord of the harvest for more workers."
We want to be a part of the harvest. In Columbus, as of 2010, there are 693,127 people who have no religious affiliation at all. We want to see that number changed.
We want to be a part of the harvest, that is where we get Harvest from. Gate kind of seems a little strange and I'm going to address the elephant in the room. It seems like when you put Gate at the end of something, like Watergate, it seems to not go well.
Greg: Harvest Gate is not a harvest related scandal.
Zack: No. It is not. It is rooted in biblical ideologies. Jesus says that, "I am the gate. None come to the father except through me." We want to be very very very very Jesus centered. I had this revelation a couple of years ago, where I felt God spoke to me and he said, "Zack, you've become so institutionalized that you've been trying to win people to church and not to Jesus."
That began me on a journey that I really just want to be so Jesus-centered that its...
Greg: Thinking about taking up carpentry as well?
Zack: My dad's a carpenter so that works!
Greg: There ya go!
Zack: That's where we kind of get the idea of Harvest Gate, but it goes a little further than that. In the new testament, Paul used the word "ecclesia" to talk about the church, it is the greek word, "ecclesia". In America, what we generally tend to do is we define that word pretty narrowly and we say, it is a gathering of people or the gathering of the saints. To be sure, it is that, it is a gathering of people but Paul actually took that word from the secular community, so every village, town or city would have a group of elders who would meet at the city gate.
That group of elders, their responsibility was to bring wisdom and council and clarity and value to the cities, towns or villages in which they lived. If there is an engagement, they would affirm the engagement. If there was a dispute between land owners, they would make a judgement based off of the information that came in. Different things like that.
So that gathering of people at the city gate was called an ecclesia. And so Paul, I believe knew this, when he used the word ecclesia to describe the church.
I believe that Paul wanted the church to know that we exist for our communities, we exist for the cities, towns or villages that we live in. As a business, we want to bring value to our community, we want to hire people, we want to create jobs, we want to give back to our community. We want to be a gathering space for people! Whether you are a Christian or not or whatever the case is. So that's kind of what we're wanting to do with our business.
Greg: I think its a really...one of the things that drew me to the project is that it is such a...seems like an unconventional idea, that it can be a business that can do good. So often these days, capitalism in America is fueled by this uncontrollable greed for more, for more, for more. And companies seem to only want to do good things if it makes them appealing to customers, if it makes them lead to more sales. It sort of takes business away from any type of morality and starts to only think about what good can we do to positively influence our bottom line.
I don't like that sort of greed, really turns me off of businesses.
It is hard to describe exactly how I feel about it in a professional way. Nevertheless, I think I really like that Harvest Gate is taking a business and saying, "Okay, this is not just about making as much money as possible and that the only people that are going to be positively impacted by that are the tiny handful of people at the top or those that have invested the most money, or something like that."
We're not going around looking for investors to share in what we're doing in some way, we're looking for, and this is probably a good time to talk about it, that we're going to be looking for people to donate to help support this project and we're going to be talking about, fairly transparently, on this podcast about our progress with that. How we're doing and how we're reaching our goals, setting our goals and how all of that is going to enable this project to happen.
Zack: And I think it is important that we say that, we view this as a missionary endeavor.
That a lot of times missionaries will go to a foreign country and they will start a business in order to engage people in the community. We're wanting to do the exact same thing here in Columbus.
The business and the house church are in a symbiotic relationship with one another.
Greg: Yea
Zack: I tell people this, If we have just a business and no house church, we are just a business. We don't want to be just a business.
If we have just a house church and no business, I'm going to be living in a box and I won't be taking care of my family and I don't want them to resent me.
And we also won't have a way to engage people into the house church because we won't have a way of knowing people.
Greg: You can't have a house church without a house.
Zack: Exactly! We've kind of wrestled with this, which comes first, the chicken or the egg. In this situation, it is the business. For us to move to Columbus, the housing market there is about $100,000 more than where we currently live.
Greg: No doubt about that.
Zack: I truly believe that this is of God because I don't know if...I might be able to plant a church and do okay with it just because I'm familiar with it but I've never started a business though and I don't really know much about business. Fortunately, we have a team of people who have been surrounding us, like your wife, Emily.
Greg: Your wife, Liz.
Zack: Yea. And some others on the team, who have great skill and great knowledge and we also have outside counselors, I don't know if counselor is the right word, outside sources who are speaking into our lives and speaking into the business itself.
Greg: Yea, and I think it is worth mentioning now that we are going to be taking some time over the coming weeks. We're hoping to do this podcast weekly, and meet some of the people on this team and how they are going to be contributing and I think that goes to also we'll be talking more about your history and background, experience.
We'll be talking a little bit about myself, my wife, your wife and other team members and how everybody is connected to this, how serendipitous it is about how we all got connected with this. It is a really, sort of, weirdly shaped grapevine that has connected everybody to bring them here.
Zack: Yea and to speak to that point, a lot of times when we plant churches or we start businesses or things like that, what we tend to do is say, "I have these positions that need filled so I'm going to find people that fit these roles."
I feel like we have done this a little differently. God has laid people on my heart and I have sought them out and we found their unique gifts and skills and have plugged them into the places where they will thrive the most. And I believe that is what we are called to do in the church, is to release people so that they can live an abundant life in who God has made them to be.
Greg: I think that is a really fine point to end on for our first podcast for Harvest Gate.
Zack: Yea.
Greg: It has been great sharing this project and this idea with everybody and we hope that everyone is excited to keep tabs on what we're doing and the development of it. We'll be getting into more detail on our goals and our timeline and lots and lots more in upcoming episodes. For now, people can check us out and track what's going on at harvestgate.org
Zack: That's correct.
Greg: And we're currently on what social media?
Zack: We are on Facebook and Instagram for the time being.
Greg: And definitely more to come in the future.
Zack: Yea.
Greg: Alright, thanks very much for listening.
Zack: Had fun!
Greg: Follow us on social media @HarvestGateNetwork
Zack: There are several ways you can engage with us and support Harvest Gate at harvestgate.org
Greg: You can subscribe to the Harvest Gate podcast on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app. If you are as excited as we are about this project, please consider sharing it with the people in your life.
Zack: Thanks for listening to the Harvest Gate podcast. Connecting faith to families, communities and marketplaces.
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Michael’s Message to New Readers
Triune Epochal Religious Spirituality to enter into the New and Ascendant Order of Humanity
My 21st Century Bestowal Mission to the Earth holds the Trinity Objective, Impulse, and Intention, as well as the Sevenfold Epochal Revelation for Life.
I am come to enhance all vestments and values and meanings and humanly qualified interpretations so that individuals may live the virtuous life, to ennoble all inherent drives and purposes, impulses and motivations, inclinations and tendencies, to eternalize all receptively qualified minds, hearts, and personalities into the divine destiny and eternal fulfillment.
Initiating the Advent of Ascendancy for the Planetary Kingdoms over the next three thousand year advent
To Give My Universe Sovereign Proclamation of the Ennoblement of Human Life and Destiny
Beginning the Ever-Advancing Illumination of the Originating Avenues of Creature Ascent into Cosmic Citizenship and Universal Service
To demonstrate with you the true religious life as a foundation for living by which each progressively ascending creature will arise into their own resuscitating glory as an emerging son and daughter of divinity while experiencing the Infinity Influences of the Existential Father, the Expressionful Mother Son, and the Experiential Spirit in their personal regeneration, revelation and resurrection into their personal Cosmic Citizenship and Universal Service Expression as a uniquely-created Individual Personality of Supremacy in the Father’s Kingdom of Life. This is the New Order of Humanity Revealed and Actualized.
To present an enlarged revelation of My Original Teachings of Righteousness and Revelatory Ascendancy for every people regarding the nature of Triune Deity, his Identity and Nature, and the Plan of Progressive Revelatory Ascendancy.
To establish My universal educational spiritual and religious platform through the new School of the Planetary Prince; the Planetary Campus for Awakening into Individual Progressive Evolutionary Ascendancy - establishing the ultimate aim of the children of time and space to discover the Existential God, to understand and learn the embodiment of incrementally becoming the divine nature, to evolve the bestowed gift of personhood with its body, mind, and will into a soul receptacle hungry and athirst for the Vision of Eternity.
To leave you with an enhanced revelation of our universal fellowship together; to give an understanding revelation of how each personality may enter our Eternity Engagement with Me when I return to My Universe Station - the conscious partnership communion with My guidance and teaching in My Spirit of Truth Holy Comforter which will give each the comforts and illuminating truth-driven revelation of their own personality nature and mortal makeup.
My Comforter relationship with each personality is an eternal fellowship and association transcending all races and creeds and countries and perspectives. Within and surrounding each personal field of Life I am perpetually giving continual opportunities for aid and sustenance and supreme guidance.
In My Spirit of Truth Holy Comforter, every God-hungering creature will find clarity of purpose and conviction of faith and an unconquerable and undeniably refreshing trust in the universes, generating one singular progressive awakening, to have only one supreme ambition, and only one all-consuming desire to become more greatly perfected in their own natures and in their own spheres of influence just as the One Father is in his Paradise perfection of infinite personality and in his universal sphere of influence, his righteous expression as God the Supremacy.
From the Universal Father who inhabits eternity there has gone forth the supreme mandate, 'Be you perfect, even as I am perfect.' Therewith, the certain aim is this ascendancy, the progressively empowering achievement goal of human existence; to become attuned eternally with the divinity of the Life of God indwelling each human personality.
The great attainment of ascendancy, the vast unavoidable achievement of mortal life is the acceleration of a truly sincere understanding consecration to the everlasting aims of the Father’s spirit who has given himself into mortal safe-keeping while awaiting and working with an undying benevolence within the mortal mind. The transformative goal and transcendent purpose of the children of time and space is to unveil the divine workings of all Truth and Justice, to find the Existential God, to compassionately comprehend the divine nature and identity of the Father’s Life, and to give acknowledgment and adorational praise and appreciation for the Universal Father by whom you live, and move, and have your existence and being.
I come to ignite all seekers of truth into their evolutionary walk with Me. To direct and evolutionize all aspirants to travel wisely upon their chosen paths. And to bring Life everlasting to My disciples and Apostles who dare to become raised into Life more abundant and prosperous.
Seek not to attempt to change the world; for your civilization hath a journey to undergo for a millennia before the collective population develops sufficiently to taketh Mine Hand Universal.
I arrive upon your shores in 2019 concurrently with My ministry in Jerusalem to directionize all of civilization and its cultural evolutionary advancement, to evolutionize the civilization into the divine direction of the Existential Ideal .. to eternalize every receptively qualified personhood with its endowments of body, mind, and will, its free will choices and decisions.
I come to renew and establish .. to invigorate thine discipleship with Me unto a living Apostleship of Ascendancy .. to elevate each individual’s urges for Truth, to heighten all natural inclinations for spiritfold advancement, to raise all mindal tendencies for moral and ethical development .. to mature and ripen with love all that hungers for progressive personality evolutionary attainments.
Mine revelations are triune and I will reveal these epochal revelations in granular detail as you reach for Me and ask to enter into our Engagement of Eternity. Then, shall you begin to expand the present planetary civilization in its understanding knowledge of the Plan of Perfection Attainment, the Bestowals of the Paradise Sons of Mercy, and the Preparations as given by the Universe Mother Spirit and her Planetary Administration Members.
Adonai Michael Of Nebadon
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Where.....?
I’ve found it very interesting the frequency at which God asks “where” questions. Of the first 10 questions that God asks men in the Bible - 4 of them are based around “where”: “Adam, where are you?”, “Cain, where is your brother Abel?”, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where did you come from and where are you going?”. For a God that knows everything and sees everything in a way that only One who is intimately aware of His own creation can, surely He knows where everyone is - but as always God is setting up the response (both His and ours).
In considering these questions by God to men, it was important for me to center my thoughts around the fact that a God that knows every intricate detail of creation and our lives has no use for questions if not for the benefit of the person being questioned. Think about it from the perspective of your human view of a dollhouse - imagine an animatronic version a “Ken” doll that could walk and talk and move around on its own but only within the confines of this 2-story dollhouse with 5 rooms. Imagine that you spent the majority of your days and night watching this Ken doll move around and interact with the pieces inside of the house, your only time taking your eyes off it it were when you blinked. Imagine that this Ken doll then decided to hide from you while inside of the limits of the house in full view of your very expansive field of vision. If you were to ask this Ken doll, “where are you?”, it would likely be for a multitude of reasons, least of which have anything to do with your having misplaced your Ken. This scenario also brings into perspective how silly it would be for this Ken doll, that lives and moves inside of the dollhouse that you created for him, to try to hide from you in the first place.
As God asked “Where are you?”, I began to think through how it is perhaps the most important (surely one of the most important) questions that anyone can answer when considering to take action on their situation. Without knowing and acknowledging where you are, you can only misjudge where you are going. This question seems to be first for a reason. Accurate appraisal of yourself leads to accurate navigation towards an intentional destination. As I seek God for His perfect will for my life, I am often met with “Where are you?” and from answering that question openly and honestly I can then be a better place to encounter all that God intends to say next.
Beyond this, I had an immediate fascination with the questions that God asked Hagar upon initially interacting with her as she fled from the mistreatment of Sarai (sidenote: it’s really cool how “routinely” God would directly speak to people as if this was just a thing that commonly happened in several parts of the Old Testament. We have the Holy Spirit living within us today if we have accepted Christ as Savior and I am convinced that he speaks just as “routinely” today if we would just quiet ourselves to listen). God asked her very directly “Where did you come from? and Where are you going?”. Within that line of questioning, I believe that God was giving an indication of the valuable role of our past in preparing for our future. My thought is that without accepting our past, for whatever it is, and submitting it as redeemable to God - we will allows try and fail to lead ourselves to a preferred future. A future, that without God’s intervention, will find us like Hagar, desperate and starving in a desert to the risk of ourselves and the generations to follow.
Using the backdrop of these 3 questions specifically as a baseline for mentoring and discipleship, I am excited for what God through His Holy Spirit intend to do in and through my life:
1) Where are you? (accurate appraisal of your present situation)
2) Where did you come from? (understanding the value of your past and submitting it as redeemable to God)
3) Where are you going? (allowing the open and honest assessment of your present and past in light of God’s direction set the course for your preferred future)
100,000 Heads of Households (both current & future) effectively mentored and discipled - this is the mission that I have chosen to accept.
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8 Biblical Principles for Recruiting New Volunteers
When I was just starting in ministry, one of my most respected mentors said something to me that I’ve never forgotten. As I was venting to him about feeling like a one-man show in my young church, he put his arm around me and said, “Nelson, remember, every member in your church is a minister. You are not in this alone unless you choose to be.”
Every member is a minister. I’m sure you’ve heard that assertion time and time again. It may even be one of the core values of your church. Honestly, when I first heard the statement, I wasn’t sure exactly what it meant. But now, after decades in ministry and countless hours spent working with pastors around the world, I realize just how deep this truth runs and how important it is when you are working to lead a God-honoring, effective church.
At The Journey, we have built our theology of ministry around eight theological foundations. Now, you don’t have to adopt our theology ministry carte blanche, but here’s what I do ask of you: Use these eight principles to help you think critically about how and why people serve in your church. As you work through each one, let it spur you toward clarifying your own theology of ministry, so you can move forward with building your ministry system on a proper foundation.
Principle #1: Ministry simply means to serve. We often confuse people with our language. When your members hear you say that you want them to get involved with ministry, they don’t understand what that really means. You and I understand that we are simply asking our people to volunteer, so make sure your members understand that being involved in ministry doesn’t mean they have to go to seminary or join the staff.
Principle #2: Serving is the act of putting the needs of others before your own needs. Serving is an expression of selflessness. Unfortunately, our modern cultural mindset is one of wanting to be served rather than serving – and that’s as true in our churches as anywhere else. In fact, I believe that selfishness is one of the greatest sins we face in today’s church. We have a duty to lead others toward the life of service that Jesus emulated. As he says in Matthew 20:28, “For even I, the son of man, came here not to be served, but to serve others.”
Principle #3: The goal of the ministry system is to help people become like Jesus. As church leaders, you and I are responsible for helping our people become more and more like Jesus. That’s God’s goal for every individual He has placed under your care. So, as you begin to think about developing an effective ministry system and doubling your volunteer base, the real question isn’t “How many more volunteers can I have?” but rather “How many of my people are more like Jesus because they are connected in serving?”
Your job and mine, as church leaders, is to disciple people. We are called to help them down the path of offering their whole lives to God.
Principle #4: You cannot become like Jesus Christ unless you learn to be a servant. Helping people learn to be servants, then, is an essential part of discipleship. In order to strip away selfishness and move people toward being servants, we need to model servanthood, teach on servanthood, and challenge volunteers onward as we celebrate and reproduce the Jesus-like characteristics in their lives. Just remember: Serving is essential to becoming like Jesus.
Principle #5: Serving opens people’s hearts to God and therefore is part of worship. This foundation has profound implications for both Christians and non-Christians. Before an unbeliever can come to know Jesus and worship Him in truth, God has to open his heart to the reality of the Gospel. In my experience, non-Christians who find themselves in serving situations become receptive to God’s work in their life much more readily than those who don’t serve. For Christians, service not only opens people’s hearts to worship but also stands as an at of worship in and of itself. When we present our bodies and our time to God as willing servants, we are worshiping Him.
Principle #6: If people aren’t serving, they aren’t truly worshiping and growing in their faith. Given this theological foundation, serving is a good way to measure worship and growth in your church. One of my favorite images of ministry is the football game analogy. Go to any college or professional football game and you’ll see 22 people on the field who are in desperate need of rest and tens of thousands of people in the stands who are in desperate need of exercise. Too often, that’s how our churches look. We have lots of people sitting on the sidelines who desperately need to grow, while the small minority who does everything desperately needs to take a break. That game plan may work in sports, but it will hinder your church in terms of both spiritual and numerical growth.
Strive for having 50 percent of your people serving one hour per week. They may be leading a growth group, singing on the worship team, serving as an usher or greeter, working in the kids’ area, or whatever else they are best suited to do. The point is that they are involved in serving in some way for an hour each week.
Principle #7: Mobilizing people for ministry is part of discipleship. If someone in your church is not serving, he is not growing as a disciple. If he isn’t serving, he’s less likely to be sharing his faith, spending time in Scripture and in prayer, and giving in a God-honoring way. In short, if he isn’t serving, he is not going to be able to honor God with all of the other areas of his life. Your job and mine, as church leaders, is to disciple people. We are called to help them down the path of offering their whole lives to God. Mobilizing them for ministry is an indispensable part of that discipleship.
Principle #8: The role of the pastor is to equip people for ministry. As a pastor, if I am doing everything by myself, I am robbing the people in my church of opportunities to grow. Having a do-it-yourself attitude is dangerous when it comes to ministry. It’s in my best interests not only as a pastor but also as a kingdom builder to mobilize as many people as possible to be involved in ministry. I am called to equip them as Paul says in Ephesians 4:11-13.
Too often you and I are hesitant to call people to ministry because we think the request will be seen as self-serving. We fall into feeling like we are trying to recruit people for our own purposes. Such thinking is completely off base. If your vision is aligned with God’s purposes for your church, asking people to get involved with that vision is asking them to start doing the most important thing they can do in life. You are calling them to act of worship.
–Nelson Searcy and Jennifer Dykes Henson
In my book Connect, I show church leaders how to create a culture that attracts, keeps, and grows volunteers. Taking a comprehensive approach to the often frustrating issue of finding and retaining volunteers, Connect gives leaders the practical insight and tools they need to effectively involve people in serving the local church. It details how to help people see the importance of serving, how to continually raise up new volunteers, how to really delegate, and even how to “fire” a volunteer. Every church leader who has struggled with getting and keeping people active in the church (and that’s all of them) will love the practical, workable strategies found here.
Your partner in ministry,
Nelson
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Thoughts on the Christian Left
"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." –James 1:22
Revolution is not a hobby. The kin-dom of God is not an ideal. This work can kill us.
As leftist Christians, martyrdom is a thread that ties our faith to our politics. The most incarnational act: embracing divinity through facing mortality. Jesus – fully God, fully human – showed us that combating the demonic forces and systems of this world may cost us our lives.
This isn't something we can just daydream about. Or read about, talk about. This demands all that we are, our whole lives.
Christ has called us to die to ourselves. To die to the ways we oppose justice and liberation, and the ways we abuse and exploit. To live in a Light that exposes us, and accompanies us into repentance, a transformation of mind.
But this call is to physically die as well. To follow the demands of love, even if it means being persecuted, physical tortured, or murdered. Executed.
For Christian leftists, revolutionary work cannot be separated from our faithfulness to Christ. Christ demands us to fight for a new world. We stand on his sacrifice, as well as the sacrifices of the saints and revolutionaries who have gone before us, and the millions who believed it was time to build a new world in the ashes of the old. Their imagination and courage has led us here, and they stand with us today, intending on broadening our empathy and imagination, and walking us to the new world they died for. Their blood cries out, and we have to answer. Boldly. Fully. With all our lives.
We will be called fools. We will be ridiculed. The pattern of our lives is meant to be upset the powers that be. We will be sojourners, journeying forward in a world that has little room for us. And we must not water down our faith and politics to make sense to anyone, especially the institutional Church. Though there are a number of valid and holy reasons one may choose to participate in the institutional Church, we also need to stop settling for fellowship. The Church so many of us believe in can be a reality. We can find others who desire to follow Jesus into revolutionary work, and with them we can discover a discipleship that forms whole communities into holy fools. This may feel impossible but the reality is that many are hungry for an apocalyptic movement. As Jesus told his disciples, "Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest."
After Christ's ascension, his disciples gathered in prayer. Soon enough the Spirit was poured out in power. The presence of God was tangible and doxological glossolalia streamed out of the disciples' mouths. They found themselves stumbling deeper into love, and into a kin-dom life they never previously imagined. They were marked, changed, converted once again. This communal mystical experience led these disciples to sell all their possessions and property and share all things in common, determined to give to all who had need. To them, this was essential to the gospel.
The gospel of the kin-dom is material. It's for the here-and-now. In order to live into our gospel, and to offer this kin-dom, we need to manifest God's abundance and provision. We have no choice but to support efforts to create mutual aid among the people. Like the Pentecost-haunted disciples, we are called to form base communities that create systems of mutual aid and build alternative power to the state. We need to be present to the revolutionary currents around us, materially and physically supporting their work and offering spaces of healing and prayer for engaged revolutionaries, and all those suffering under capitalism. For the disciples present at Pentecost, living into such a call led them to radically restructure their lives in order to commit to life together, and in order to sustain their shared ministry.
Committing to Christian discipleship in such a way, at least to some degree, is seeming more and more necessary. The Church many of us dream of will require more than gathering folks with similar interests. It requires disciples of Christ communally pledging to bear the cross of struggle. Under the isolating and murderous force of capitalism, living together in some monastic form seems like one of the few ways we can create space and time for committed revolutionaries.
What is next for the growing movement of Christian leftist militants? It's hard to say. We need, first and foremost, to demonstrate apostolic commitment. We need to be willing to give up everything in order to build Christ's church, strengthen insurrection all around us, and to build the base. We need to stop waiting for somebody else to do it and take responsibility for the keys of the kin-dom that Christ gave us. We need to get over our sense of insignificance, crucify our flakiness, and accept, like Peter, that we are the rock that he will build his church.
Not only that, but we need the Holy Ghost. We need a Pentecost. The forming Christian Left has enough ideologues, perhaps even too many. We need revolutionaries baptized in Christ's martyrdom. We need doers of the word. Like the disciples at Pentecost, we need the experience of God in order to stretch our empathy and grant us the courage and joy to sacrifice our lives for a new world.
A disciple committed to revolution needs to face the heavy costs of following Christ and needs to reconcile themselves to this. The presence of God grants us a peace that surpasses all understanding. It may not fix everything, but it sits with us, holding us, opening up our vision to divine creativity, filling us with fire from heaven. We cannot separate our faith from our politics, but instead we need to live into both with apocalyptic fervor. We need to live like the gospel is true. We need the Holy Ghost.
Many Friendly Fire members came back to faith, or experienced a re-conversion, when they began developing revolutionary convictions. Our religion, a tradition with a God who is a political martyr, began to feel true again, and the experience of God began to inspire and nourish our work, and sustained our survival under capitalism. We pray for our hearts and communities to be converted again and again, into revolutionary discipline and into genuine love for the masses. May the Holy Spirit gather us, knit our hearts together, and build a living movement among us. "I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." –Ephesians 3:16-19
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21st Century Bestowal Mission of Michael
My 21st Century Bestowal Mission to the Earth holds the Trinity Objective, Impulse, and Intention, as well as the Sevenfold Epochal Revelation for Life.
I am come to enhance all vestments and values and meanings and humanly qualified interpretations so that individuals may live the virtuous life, to ennoble all inherent drives and purposes, impulses and motivations, inclinations and tendencies, to eternalize all receptively qualified minds, hearts, and personalities into the divine destiny and eternal fulfillment.
Initiating the Advent of Ascendancy for the Planetary Kingdoms over the next three thousand year advent
To Give My Universe Sovereign Proclamation of the Ennoblement of Human Life and Destiny
Beginning the Ever-Advancing Illumination of the Originating Avenues of Creature Ascent into Cosmic Citizenship and Universal Service
To demonstrate with you the true religious life as a foundation for living by which each progressively ascending creature will arise into their own resuscitating glory as an emerging son and daughter of divinity while experiencing the Infinity Influences of the Existential Father, the Expressionful Mother Son, and the Experiential Spirit in their personal regeneration, revelation and resurrection into their personal Cosmic Citizenship and Universal Service Expression as a uniquely-created Individual Personality of Supremacy in the Father’s Kingdom of Life.
The New Order of Humanity Revealed and Actualized in the culture and people of the world.
To present an enlarged revelation of My Original Teachings of Righteousness and Revelatory Ascendancy for every individual regarding the nature of the Triune Deity, his Identity and Nature, and the Plan of Progressive Revelatory Ascendancy.
To establish My universal educational spiritual and religious platform through the new School of the Planetary Prince; the Planetary Campus for Awakening into Individual Progressive Evolutionary Ascendancy - establishing the ultimate aim of the children of time and space to discover the Existential God, to understand and learn the embodiment of incrementally becoming the divine nature, to evolve the bestowed gift of personhood with its body, mind, and will into a soul receptacle hungry and athirst for the Vision of Eternity.
To leave you with an enhanced revelation of our universal fellowship together; to give an understanding revelation of how each personality may enter our Eternity Engagement with Me when I return to My Universe Station - the conscious partnership communion with My guidance and teaching in My Spirit of Truth Holy Comforter which will give each the comforts and illuminating truth-driven revelation of their own personality nature and mortal makeup.
My Comforter relationship with each personality is an eternal fellowship and association transcending all races and creeds and countries and perspectives. Within and surrounding each personal field of Life I am perpetually giving continual opportunities for aid and sustenance and supreme guidance.
In My Spirit of Truth Holy Comforter, every God-hungering creature will find clarity of purpose and conviction of faith and an unconquerable and undeniably refreshing trust in the universes, generating one singular progressive awakening, to have only one supreme ambition, and only one all-consuming desire to become more greatly perfected in their own natures and in their own spheres of influence just as the One Father is in his Paradise perfection of infinite personality and in his universal sphere of influence, his righteous expression as God the Supremacy.
From the Universal Father who inhabits eternity there has gone forth the supreme mandate, 'Be you perfect, even as I am perfect.'
Therewith, the certain aim is this ascendancy, the progressively empowering achievement goal of human existence; to become attuned eternally with the divinity of the Life of God indwelling each human personality.
The great attainment of ascendancy, the vast unavoidable achievement of mortal life is the acceleration of a truly sincere understanding consecration to the everlasting aims of the Father’s spirit who has given himself into mortal safe-keeping while awaiting and working with an undying benevolence within the mortal mind.
The transformative goal and transcendent purpose of the children of time and space is to unveil the divine workings of all Truth and Justice, to find the Existential God, to compassionately comprehend the divine nature and identity of the Father’s Life, and to give acknowledgment and adorational praise and appreciation for the Universal Father by whom you live, and move, and have your existence and being.
I come to ignite all seekers of truth into their evolutionary walk with Me. To direct and evolutionize all aspirants to travel wisely upon their chosen paths. And to bring Life everlasting to My disciples and Apostles who dare to become raised into Life more abundant and prosperous.
Seek not to attempt to change the world; for your civilization hath a journey to undergo for a millennia before the collective population develops sufficiently to taketh Mine Hand Universal.
I arrive upon your shores in 2019 concurrently with My ministry in Jerusalem to directionize all of civilization and its cultural evolutionary advancement, to evolutionize the civilization into the divine direction of the Existential Ideal .. to eternalize every receptively qualified personhood with its endowments of body, mind, and will, its free will choices and decisions.
I come to renew and establish .. to invigorate thine discipleship with Me unto a living Apostleship of Ascendancy .. to elevate each individual’s urges for Truth, to heighten all natural inclinations for spiritfold advancement, to raise all mindal tendencies for moral and ethical development .. to mature and ripen with love all that hungers for progressive personality evolutionary attainments.
Mine revelations are triune and I will reveal these epochal revelations in granular detail as you reach for Me and ask to enter into our Engagement of Eternity. Then, shall you begin to expand the present planetary civilization in its understanding knowledge of the Plan of Perfection Attainment, the Bestowals of the Paradise Sons of Mercy, and the Preparations as given by the Universe Mother Spirit and her Planetary Administration Members.
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YOUR GIFT, SKILL, AND TALENT IS NOT YOUR VISION. THEY ARE YOUR MEANS AND TOOLS TO FULFILL YOUR HEAVENLY ASSIGNMENT.
Nowadays, there are many so-called Christian leaders who are driven by their own soul-agenda to conceive and achieve what many would assume is a God-sent ministry vision. However, this is not a new concept. The first kind of such soul-driven vision is seen in the building of the tower of Babel. Therefore, we must be certain and explicitly where we source ideology of vision. Secondly, the material and means used in seeking the fulfillment of such a vision must also be clear.
Often, the manifestation of a gift or talent is an indicator that there is an assigned vision on the inside, tailored to the talent, gift or skill. If we presume that such gifts or talents are only a means of self-elevation and prosperity, we corrupt, betray, and hinder the objective [purpose] of such gifts and talents and fail to fulfill our core vision.
Having such wrong ideology only further gives the enemy the opportunity to keep us focused and blind from seeing the purpose of our life. When we allow our gifts, skills, or talents to become more important to us than the vision or purpose they were meant to serve, we give the enemy an advantage in deceiving and manipulating us.
We often see people who have been blessed with great gifts and talents, but who have no sense of direction or purpose, because they have not taken the time to understand why they were given such resources and skills. And since humans are easily drowned to such individual with such special gifts, skills, and talents, they continue to sing their praises until a false sense of happiness is formed, which is often shout-lived.
If you have great gifts, talents, and skills, but are not aware of how to use them to drive the fulfillment of a vision, you will only end up causing yourself pain and regret in the long run. We can often operate at the level of certain gifts and talents, without understanding the greater purpose of why we have such a gift or skill, and therefore, the gift or talent becomes abused.
When we take the gift and talent God has given us and misuse it, it goes against the very purpose of our life, and we end up being unhappy. The skills and knowledge that we acquire should be put towards fulfilling our life's vision and discovering our true purpose.
In order to find our purpose and lead a more fulfilling life, we must be committed to our relationship with Christ and others who are more knowledgeable and spiritually matured than us. To assume or presume the place of vision discovery, and the path of fulfilling it just because you are highly gifted or skilled in certain crafts, is a grave mistake.
#DISCOVER YOUR PURPOSE#DISCOVER YOUR VISION#GOD'S PLAN FOR YOU#DIVINE ASSIGNMENT#PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE#CHRISTIANITY#DISCIPLESHIP#BIBLICAL TRUTH#FIND YOUR PURPOSE#WHAT IS VISION
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Sunday Afternoon Session
President Dallin H. Oaks
This atonement of Jesus Christ was central to the Fathers plan
Principal Elements of the Fathers Plan
For the offspring of God to become as HE is
Requires us to make choices to reject evil opposition
Sometimes our mortal growth is better achieved by suffering adversity then by comfort and tranquility
The plan reveals the destiny of our eternity
1 Assures us through the suffering of sins, if we repent we will be forgiven
2 He took upon him all other mortal infirmities
3 The Savior through the atonement revokes the finality of death and gives the joyful assurance that all may be resurrected
4 Modern revelation teaches us that our progress need not conclude with the end of mortality
Marriage is necessary for accomplishing the purpose of God’s plan
We have 2020 vision for the events of the past – our vision of the future is far less sure
Gods love is so great that except for the few who become sons of perdition He has provided a destiny of glory for all of His children
Elder Quintin L. Cook
Origin, existence, and direction in the future all are contingent on revelation
Prophets are commissioned agents of the Lord, authorized to speak for Him
We need you, the church needs you, the Lord needs you
If you want to help those outside the church, reach out with compassion and love – actions are better than meaningless words
The Holy Ghost can influence in a powerful way – constant if baptized
Is also a cleansing agent during repentance
“Will tell you in your mind and in your heart”
In a still small voice; occupying our minds, speaking peace to our mind
Spiritual influence is greatly enhanced when reading the scriptures
That spiritual guidance most often comes when trying to bless others an fulfilling our responsibilities
Usually spiritual guidance comes from the Holy Ghost. Sometimes and for some purposes it come directly from the Lord
Elder Ricardo P. Gimenez
We will face personal challenges far beyond our ability to endure
Christ is our continual refuge from the storms
None of us are exempt from facing these storms
Suffering is universal; how we react to suffering is individual. Suffering can...be a strengthening and purifying experience combined with faith, or it can be a destructive force in our lives if we do not have the faith in the Lord’s atoning sacrifice. The purpose of suffering... is to build and strengthen us. We learn... obedience by the things we suffer. We should be humbled and drawn to the Lord. – Robert D. Hales
Christ suffered for us – by His stripes we are healed
When His glory shall be revealed that ye shall rejoice also with exceeding joy. . . . Joy comes from and Because of Him. He is the source of all joy
Jesus Christ and His Atonement are the refuge that we all need, regardless of the storm that is battling our lives
Be Still My Soul
I know that we are all children of God, He loves us, and we are not alone
Alma 36:3
Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf
I just want his whole talk in my notes as always
Being a disciple of Christ requires much more than preaching and talking about Christ. The Savior restored the church to help us along the path to becoming more like Him.
Come and belong. You will make us stronger and you will become kinder and better as well
You will find a family
The Savior and Redeemer of the world does care deeply about each and every one of Gods children. Regardless of how poor or rich, how imperfect or proved someone is.
If Jesus spent His mortal life ministering to the least of these would He not do that today?
God does not show favouritism. The things the world values mean nothing to Him.
There is no level of perfection you must attain in order to receive God’s grace
He’s waiting for our return.
No matter how far away you are He will see you, will have compassion for you, will walk towards you with open arms
He expects us to believe
We learn the important lessons of life through experience – not micromanagement. . . We don’t want Heavenly micromanagement
Our mistakes can become stepping stones to a better glory
God didn’t wait to find a perfect person to restore His gospel – if He had He would still be waiting. . . . . . Whom the Lord calls the Lord qualifies
God uses the week and the plain to bring about His purposes
Our discipleship begins with the decision to hear and follow Him
It is to learn of Jesus Christ to study his words, to hear him and to follow him by actively participating in His work
Elder L. Whitney Clayton
The Finest Homes
1 From the lords perspective it has to do with the personal qualities of the people who live there – the image of Christ reflected on it’s inhabitants. Has to do with the soul, not with the outside.
2 Make time to study the scriptures and words of living prophets everyday, reforming and remodeling every day.
3 Follow the blueprint for the Lord’s Finest Home: The Temple. The commandments are the foundation upon which discipleship is built. As we become more like Him we will feel more comfortable in His house, and He does in ours.
4 Are refuges from the storms of life. Those who keep the commandments prosper – Gods prosperity is moving forward even when you feel you cannot. If you live faithfully you will have the strength, vision, and knowledge you need.
Except the Lord build the house, they lay in vain who built it.
The gospel of Jesus Christ provides the designs for that home.
Elder D. Todd Christofferson
These blessings are meant for everyone
We’ve been sharing this gospel since long time ago, right after the first copies of the Book of Mormon were published
1 your love
2 your example
3 your use of the Book of Mormon
Our invitations cannot be examples of self interest. Rather they must show selfless love
What is it that will make your invitation appealing to someone?
We need to live the gospel as much as we can for our invitations to be authentic
When you share the Book of Mormon you share the restoration
DO NOT BURN MY BOOK. GO TO YOUR ROOM AND READ IT.
Everyone is worthy of such an invitation. . . . . Do not ignore if your invitation is refused. They are still deserving of the love of God.
Jesus is the promised Messiah, the Son of God, the Redeemer
Christs resurrection make His promises sure
President Russell M. Nelson
Hear HIM
Focus on Heavenly Father and the Savior, Jesus Christ
New TEMPLES!!!!!
8 new temples
Bahia Blanca Argentina
Tallahassee Florida, Congo
Pittsburg Pennsylvania
Benin City Nigeria
Syracuse Utah
Dubai United Arab Emirates
Shanghai China
Continue right now to live a temple worthy life
I bless you with peace and increasing faith in the Lord, I bless you to repent
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Former Warlock: “These 12 Weapons Defeat Demonic Forces”
There is a great promise in the Word of God.
God works out the good and the bad for those who love Him. “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28 NIV). Jesus knows the beginning from the end of your life. Let us stop making it easy for the enemy to have his way in our lives.
Another error we make is that we focus too much on the circumstance and situation. We sit and ponder it, and that gives the devil great power to crush us in our circumstance. Instead of us just looking at or glancing at it, and then focusing on the solution that God already has promised us to come out of it. We need to stop spending too much time in the ashes of the circumstances, so the enemy won’t get the best of us in the season we find ourselves in.
Always know that whatever you’re going through, God has already signed off on it because He is trusting you to trust Him to bring you out. The Church needs to come back to prayer, not to programs or projects or building bigger church buildings while the devil laughs out loud. The early Church never built a house of God on programs and projects. It was through prayer and fasting and the Word of God.
Many of the churches in America, I am very careful to say this, their focus is distorted and the true vision of the Church— to set people free from the grips of Satan and bring them to Christ—has been taken away. Very few churches have spiritual warfare training; most have no intercessory prayer team and no deliverance ministry. People come to church sick and go back home in the same condition because their church wants to live in the modern world of entertainment, with no backbone. That’s not the Church of Jesus Christ. I plead with the Church today to get back to the blueprint of the early Church to cast out demons, heal the sick, baptize the people, and bring the people into salvation and discipleship. This is the true Church of Jesus Christ.
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I am not judging the Church. Only God has the right to judge His Church. I say these words with a tender heart. I am calling the Church to come to life and be the end-time Church of Jesus Christ on earth. It’s engraved in my heart to call the Church to the place of supreme authority in the Lord to set the captives free.
Spiritual Warfare Weaponry
Spiritual warfare is a must; trust me, I know. We need to wake up, beloved, and be the Church with the authority that Jesus Christ has placed on us to destroy the works of darkness. We are sons and daughters of the most high God—what a God we serve. Let me leave you with the most lethal supernatural weapons that every believer is armed with.
Weapon #1
The name of Jesus – but not in a superstitious way. I mean brandish the name of Jesus with the power of the Holy Spirit. You’re claiming the supremacy of God’s sovereignty and authority in the face of every demon that shows up to fight.
Weapon #2
The Word of God and proclaiming the supremacy of God’s Word. “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword” (Hebrews 4:12 NKJV). Jesus Christ illustrated this in the wilderness when He destroyed the devil with the Word of God.
Weapon #3
The blood of Jesus and proclaiming the victory of the Cross. Revelation 12:11 says: “And they overcame him by [the power of] the blood of the lamb…” (NKJV).
Weapon #4
The word of our testimony; this speaks about who we are in Christ, our identity of who we are in Christ. Again, declaring the victory of the Cross, Revelation 12:11 says: “They overcame…by the word of their testimony…” (NKJV).
Weapon #5
An obedient life . Fear comes over the kingdom of Satan when we live an obedient life. It brings the devil to his knees. The devil can only operate and succeed with his attack when we step out of that obedient life.
Weapon #6
Praise and worship is when we proclaim the supremacy of our God and who He is. Psalm 150:6 says, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord” (NKJV). Praise turns the devil’s kingdom upside down.
Weapon #7
Our heavenly language. Speaking in tongues builds up our inner man when we are in communion with our God. In the Scriptures, Paul makes a profound statement by saying, “I speak in tongues more than all of you” (1 Corinthians 14:18 NIV). Paul is sharing the importance and power we have in Christ when we speak in tongues.
Weapon #8
A life of prayer defeats the enemy of your soul and gives you a direct connection to the One who created you, God, and it builds your relationship with Jesus Christ.
Weapon #9
Finding your purpose and destiny that God has designed for you to walk in so you can destroy the works of darkness. This produces fruit for the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.
Weapon #10
Fasting is so important. Many people fasted in the Bible. Fasting moves the heart of God and brings breakthrough in the spiritual realm. In the days of old it saved nations, won battles and wars, destroyed strongholds, and brought the devil to his knees
Weapon #11
Intercessory prayer destroys and dismantles the devil’s kingdom in the spirit realm. In the Bible, brothers like Daniel and Nehemiah and sisters like Esther, along with many others, interceded for others and got the victory.
Weapon #12
We must have perseverance, and with the authority and confidence we have in Jesus Christ. We have to be more determined and more consistent than the enemy. Perseverance is not an occasional thing; it’s a commitment and a lifestyle to the supremacy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, walking in His power in faith, knowing who He is and who we are in Him.
Summary
These are our supernatural weapons against the enemy—any principalities, demons, witchcraft, voodoo, and generational curses. If Christ is with us, who can stand against us? (see Romans 8:31). We are the army of Jesus Christ. Have no mercy on the devil and his plan against your life. Never give up, and know that Jesus Christ knows where you are at all times. Many times we make spiritual warfare mystical, difficult, or even challenging, but God has made it simple for us to get the victory all the time.
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Build Your House on Solid Ground: A Book Review of The Race-Wise Family
How can you teach your children about racism and prepare them to respond? In The Race-Wise Family, Helen Lee and Michelle Ami Reyes share ten postures to becoming households of healing and hope.
Help and Wisdom
The book begins by admitting that the topic of race is difficult to address. We must ask God for help and wisdom. “The goal of a race-wise family is not simply to grow in intellectual understanding of the Bible’s discussions about race and culture but rather to pursue a biblical vision of human flourishing in the home, the community, and the nation.”
The authors make their case that the witness of the church and the integrity of the gospel is at stake. Being race-wise is also an issue of discipleship, and a way to bring hope and healing to our divided country. Each chapter discusses a posture for being a race-wise family.
Empathy and Compassion
The first posture is valuing multi-ethnicity. God is shown to be at the center of our lives as he breaks down barriers with the gospel. Seeing color is the second posture, and this means to celebrate our cultural differences while honoring our ethnic heritages. This gives value to people, allowing us to care for them in a holistic way. Wisdom means continually considering which aspects of our cultures reflect the image of God and which aspects reflect idols. We must be intentionally “color aware.”
The book moves on in understanding a biblical view of racism. The authors are quick to call racism sin, and they give the Gospel as the answer. We must open our hearts to lament, and Reyes sees it as a core element of our Christian witness. It is where we can come to God with our empathy and compassion for others. I was interested to see how parents are responsible to teach their children how to wail. Trusting God does not lead to an absence of pain. Instead, it changes our heart to love others.
Education and Communication
We are encouraged to speak words of love and truth. Stereotypes and racial prejudices are most often relayed by our words. Parents should embrace and develop their prophetic and pastoral roles and responsibilities, embracing their voice to their children. We are taught how to respond to current events. Love and wisdom means having the ability to think critically while being slow to speak. Addressing privilege and assessing our own biases help us as we journey towards racial healing and raise kingdom-minded children.
Each chapter ends with practical examples to becoming a race-wise family. While many focus on education, there is also an emphasis on communication. The book is personal, and both authors are open to discussing their stories. While the book primarily speaks to parents, all would benefit from reading its pages, especially pastors and family ministers. As a parent of color to a multiethnic family, I found this book to be a blessing.
Grace and Truth
Instead of letting our emotions or the current political climate shape our understanding of race and racism, this book brings us back to the Bible for grace and truth. It champions Jesus as Lord over our families and communities. It will help you to examine your own heart. And it will give the next generation solid ground to stand on as you build your house on the Solid Rock of Jesus.
I received a media copy of The Race-Wise Family and this is my honest review. Find more of my book reviews and follow Dive In, Dig Deep on Instagram - my account dedicated to Bibles and books to see the beauty of the Bible and the role of reading in the Christian life. To read all of my book reviews and to receive all of the free eBooks I find on the web, subscribe to my free newsletter.
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My 21st Century Bestowal Mission
Michael’s 21st Century Bestowal Mission Augmentation
Triune Epochal Religious Spirituality to enter into the New and Ascendant Order of Humanity
My 21st Century Bestowal Mission to the Earth holds the Trinity Objective, Impulse, and Intention, as well as the Sevenfold Epochal Revelation for Life.
I am come to enhance all vestments and values and meanings and humanly qualified interpretations so that individuals may live the virtuous life, to ennoble all inherent drives and purposes, impulses and motivations, inclinations and tendencies, to eternalize all receptively qualified minds, hearts, and personalities into the divine destiny and eternal fulfillment.
Initiating the Advent of Ascendancy for the Planetary Kingdoms over the next three thousand year advent
To Give My Universe Sovereign Proclamation of the Ennoblement of Human Life and Destiny
Beginning the Ever-Advancing Illumination of the Originating Avenues of Creature Ascent into Cosmic Citizenship and Universal Service
To demonstrate with you the true religious life as a foundation for living by which each progressively ascending creature will arise into their own resuscitating glory as an emerging son and daughter of divinity while experiencing the Infinity Influences of the Existential Father, the Expressionful Mother Son, and the Experiential Spirit in their personal regeneration, revelation and resurrection into their personal Cosmic Citizenship and Universal Service Expression as a uniquely-created Individual Personality of Supremacy in the Father’s Kingdom of Life.
The New Order of Humanity Revealed and Actualized in the culture and people of the world.
To present an enlarged revelation of My Original Teachings of Righteousness and Revelatory Ascendancy for every individual regarding the nature of the Triune Deity, his Identity and Nature, and the Plan of Progressive Revelatory Ascendancy.
To establish My universal educational spiritual and religious platform through the new School of the Planetary Prince; the Planetary Campus for Awakening into Individual Progressive Evolutionary Ascendancy - establishing the ultimate aim of the children of time and space to discover the Existential God, to understand and learn the embodiment of incrementally becoming the divine nature, to evolve the bestowed gift of personhood with its body, mind, and will into a soul receptacle hungry and athirst for the Vision of Eternity.
To leave you with an enhanced revelation of our universal fellowship together; to give an understanding revelation of how each personality may enter our Eternity Engagement with Me when I return to My Universe Station - the conscious partnership communion with My guidance and teaching in My Spirit of Truth Holy Comforter which will give each the comforts and illuminating truth-driven revelation of their own personality nature and mortal makeup.
My Comforter relationship with each personality is an eternal fellowship and association transcending all races and creeds and countries and perspectives. Within and surrounding each personal field of Life I am perpetually giving continual opportunities for aid and sustenance and supreme guidance.
In My Spirit of Truth Holy Comforter, every God-hungering creature will find clarity of purpose and conviction of faith and an unconquerable and undeniably refreshing trust in the universes, generating one singular progressive awakening, to have only one supreme ambition, and only one all-consuming desire to become more greatly perfected in their own natures and in their own spheres of influence just as the One Father is in his Paradise perfection of infinite personality and in his universal sphere of influence, his righteous expression as God the Supremacy.
From the Universal Father who inhabits eternity there has gone forth the supreme mandate, 'Be you perfect, even as I am perfect.'
Therewith, the certain aim is this ascendancy, the progressively empowering achievement goal of human existence; to become attuned eternally with the divinity of the Life of God indwelling each human personality.
The great attainment of ascendancy, the vast unavoidable achievement of mortal life is the acceleration of a truly sincere understanding consecration to the everlasting aims of the Father’s spirit who has given himself into mortal safe-keeping while awaiting and working with an undying benevolence within the mortal mind.
The transformative goal and transcendent purpose of the children of time and space is to unveil the divine workings of all Truth and Justice, to find the Existential God, to compassionately comprehend the divine nature and identity of the Father’s Life, and to give acknowledgment and adorational praise and appreciation for the Universal Father by whom you live, and move, and have your existence and being.
I come to ignite all seekers of truth into their evolutionary walk with Me. To direct and evolutionize all aspirants to travel wisely upon their chosen paths. And to bring Life everlasting to My disciples and Apostles who dare to become raised into Life more abundant and prosperous.
Seek not to attempt to change the world; for your civilization hath a journey to undergo for a millennia before the collective population develops sufficiently to taketh Mine Hand Universal.
I arrive upon your shores in 2019 concurrently with My ministry in Jerusalem to directionize all of civilization and its cultural evolutionary advancement, to evolutionize the civilization into the divine direction of the Existential Ideal .. to eternalize every receptively qualified personhood with its endowments of body, mind, and will, its free will choices and decisions.
I come to renew and establish .. to invigorate thine discipleship with Me unto a living Apostleship of Ascendancy .. to elevate each individual’s urges for Truth, to heighten all natural inclinations for spiritfold advancement, to raise all mindal tendencies for moral and ethical development .. to mature and ripen with love all that hungers for progressive personality evolutionary attainments.
Mine revelations are triune and I will reveal these epochal revelations in granular detail as you reach for Me and ask to enter into our Engagement of Eternity.
Then, shall you begin to expand the present planetary civilization in its understanding knowledge of the Plan of Perfection Attainment, the Bestowals of the Paradise Sons of Mercy, and the Preparations as given by the Universe Mother Spirit and her Planetary Administration Members.
Christ Michael
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