Promises fulfilled; prayers answered

Where do I begin? I'm sorry (if it concerns you) that I haven't updated in a couple of weeks. Let me give you a synopsis of what has happened over the past two weeks in the form of some bullet points:

- Most amazing and virtually indescribable is the first meaningful thing that I can think of that happened two weeks ago, mid-week. My wonderful girlfriend, Helen Salter, told me that she loved me for the first time! This occurred a few days after I first confessed my love and commitment to her. I knew that she loves me, but I sure was enthralled to hear it for the first time. Helen is a dainty and elegant British girl who is waiting on me back home in Birmingham, Alabama. She's quite funny and charming, I'd say even daring, and she isn't bad on the eyes either, if I do say so myself! :) She's also wise in the love and knowledge of God in such a way that is thoroughly intriguing to me. Her heart is a veritable treasure, which I alone have the privilege to search out and know. I am fondly looking forward to seeing her again and for us to have physical contact for the first time since I began pursuing her. (We started "dating" after I arrived in New York.) Ironically, what Mrs. Sledge prophesied over me was true: I did meet my wife while in New York City, and her name is Helen. :) Of course this sounds shocking to some of you who are unawares, but if you have talked to me at all in the past month, then you know that Helen and I love each other deeply. It's been wonderful building a solid foundation of communication over the phone (and texting) everyday. We are some 900 miles away from each other, but we are closer than we have ever been in the past 4 years that I've known her and been friends with her. She is truly a wonderful friend and will be a devoted wife and mother. Please pray for us. Specifically would you pray for Helen as she is currently facing possible surgery to remove two fibrous cysts. Thankfully, the results of the mammographical tests she had, returned negative. I praise God for the fruitful vine with which He has favored me in Helen--(Psalm 128:3; Proverbs 18:22). She truly is a promise from God fulfilled.

- Last Sunday (August 23rd), my boss, Earl Stocker approached me while I was working security on the third floor of the education annex, which is the children's department of Times Square Church. He offered me the possibility of joining the Ministerial Intern Program here at TSC. The MIP is a weekly class taught by Pastor William Carrol and goes from September through January, then from January to May. The class is on biblical interpretation and homiletics and is for pastors-in-training. Since I recognize the call of God on my life to teach His word, I prayed to be in such a class before I even arrived here, though I wasn't sure there even was one. I discussed the matter with no one but God. Earl explained to me that you cannot simply join the class, you have to be recommended by your department head, which in my case is Earl. He was very kind and generous to offer this to me. I will at least get to glean from Pastor Will for one semester until my internship is finished, or until I move back home to continue pursuing Helen and making arrangements for our future together. Being in this class is a great privilege and another prayer answered. Praise God! I have nothing, but He has all.

- Last Monday, I was profoundly blessed to have the opportunity to meet Pastor Ben Crandall, who is an associate pastor here and oversees the ministry to the seniors, which occurs on Wednesday afternoons. My friend and co-worker here, Billy Good, is in charge of retrieving Pastor Ben and his wife Jeanne when they arrive from Rhode Island bi-weekly. On this occasion, Billy asked me if I would accompany him to Penn Station to pick them up. It was quite an eventful day. Dr. and Mrs. Crandall are in their 80's and have been saved and in the ministry together for sixty-some-odd years! What a legacy of faithfulness they have had! Pastor Ben's messages from the pulpit and enduring perseverance in the faith have had a deep and, I pray, lasting impact on me. He is one of my favorite preachers now. He is known for encouraging the Body of Christ at large to never give up. It was truly an honor and faith-builder to meet and get to know them.

- Last Thursday, during my lunch break, I walked over to the deli on 49th and 8th to get some 99-cent pizza. On the way, I was stopped by a solicitor named Bonni from the ecological organization, GreenPeace. At first, I was a bit taken aback because typically no one talks to you on the streets of New York except beggars. She didn't just talk to me, she jumped in front of me. Impressed with her audacity, I made her a deal. I said, "Ok. You give me your spiel, and then I want to share something with you." She said, "Ok, I think." I said, "That's the deal, take it or leave it." So she did her best to tell me about saving the polar bears, reducing pollution, and planting windmills. And I told her I agree with her and that I am a Christian. Then she was really worried and said that she didn't get into religion. I said I didn't either, LOL! So we talked for about 20 minutes going back and forth. I told her that she had given herself over to this cause of saving the environment because God has created us with an innate desire to give ourselves over to a cause and to worship something. I undermined her faith in Darwinian evolution by explaining to her that if she merely evolved from an ape in a universe which is just slowly going extinct, then she has no real purpose, her life is meaningless, and she cannot even trust her own judgment because her brain itself is just a collection of evolving molecules that may never reach completion, whatever completion is in such a worldview. She had no substantial response and then I said, "God designed you with a special purpose in His mind; a special cause just for you to fulfill." I got her to agree that there is evil in the world that needs to be fixed. I also explained that for the same reason the environment is getting ruined by us, we also need a Savior to save us from our sins, for we cannot save ourselves. She replied, "I just don't believe that." We closed out our conversation and I began to walk away when the Holy Spirit prompted me to sign up as a GreenPeace sponsor, for her sake; as a witness to her. We departed with smiles.
Lord, I pray again that you save Bonni. Do not let the word which went forth to her return to You void. Make it accomplish its purpose. Seek and save that which is lost!

- Saturday my room was fumigated with insecticide to kill the bedbug infestation, so I could not sleep in my room that night. I slept in the elder's lounge, and then in the Raven Ministry office upstairs. Yesterday morning (Sunday, the 30th) I became conscious that I was in a dream state and in that state I was conscious of the spiritual realm actually and presently about me. I came under demonic attack and could not wake up from the dream. My mind was awake, but my body was comatose. I felt as though the unclean spirits were holding my blanket down around me so that I could not move. In my dream state, the door of the room I was in flung open and an eerie light shown in from outside. I could hear weird moanings and crashing sounds. Objects started falling off the tables and the walls, and I felt completely disoriented, unable to wake my body up from sleep. The enemy was using scare tactics to intimidate me. It didn't work this time. I was more fascinated than frightened. You see, this has happened to me one other time--four years ago in Opelika while I was the intern at His Place. That time the demons verbally mocked me, and when I could not move or wake up, I became panicked. Then I cried out to Jesus to save me and He did! On this new occasion, I remembered that testimony of His faithfulness and used it against the evil powers. While in the dream state I prayed, "Lord Jesus, save me. I have overcome them by the blood of the Lamb and the word of my testimony. There is power in Your name; there is power in Your word; there is power in Your blood!" At that point, immediately, I was free to wake up and the demonic intimidation ceased. However, I remained "asleep" and asked the Lord to show me the identity of those unclean spirits. He identified three: a spirit of violence and abuse, a spirit of sexual immorality and lust, and a spirit of "lack of self-control" and carousing. I didn't know what carousing meant, so I looked it up. It means "to engage in drunken revelry." I also wondered why that happened to me in that room and at church, on a Sunday no less. The Lord told me, "the devils come to work on Sunday; the devils come to church too." The reason it happened at that time of the day is because it was the time of day when people begin to get ready to come to church. The devil is not off on Sunday. He works twice as hard in order to counteract the preaching and receiving of the Word of God on that day. And so the spiritual battle is very real. The enemy sends his agents to buffett people, distract them, dismay them, tempt them, and confuse them. All the more we should pray for the dismantling of Satan's kingdom and of his schemes against mankind. Don't forget, we have overcome him by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony!

It's been an eventful two weeks. I hope yours was as well. Stay connected with the Lord.

grace to you,

David

Walking in the Spirit

Greetings,

I won’t waste words this week with long introductions. It occurred to me that I haven’t really discussed in this blog what my job here at the church is. I’m primarily a painter here in the maintenance ministry. This week I have been repairing the plaster and painting in “The Tunnel.” The Tunnel is in the basement of this immense church. It has been dubbed as such because it is just a long, twisty corridor of narrow passages with lower-than-average ceilings. I could paint the ceiling by hand without the use of a ladder or extension pole. I’m not finished with this project yet, but I have finished the first long hallway.

This past Sunday I also worked security on the third floor of the Annex, which is the children’s department. This was the first time that I have worked security on that floor and I felt unprepared. Unlike painting, there’s nothing really physically demanding about doing security, but it is mentally taxing because you have the responsibility of paying careful attention to all that goes on and all the hundreds of people and children who go in and out of there on any given Sunday. It’s a HUGE responsibility! For the sake of not harming anyone even by a little mistake, I’d rather paint. It stresses me out to think about what could happen if I got distracted even for a minute at the wrong time while doing security. But just like everything else, I have no ability to perform this responsibility in the weakness of my flesh. My self-effort will only result in disappointment and failure. We have to walk in the Spirit and believe God for His ability for everything that we do. God makes Himself available to us for this through Christ Jesus. Our activity is either done in the flesh or in the Spirit; there is nothing in between. Regardless of what the activity is, God wants us to rely on Him; to do EVERYTHING as unto the Lord. Do you think that it pleases God for you to do even the most seemingly meaningless task by self-effort? Did it ever occur to you that performing your daily tasks by self-effort in the weakness of your flesh is the very reason why some of you hate your jobs? You go home irritated and exhausted because you performed your job all day by self-effort—by the flesh. We don’t hate our jobs merely because we aren’t passionate about them. I have come to realize that only focusing on what you are passionate about is a lie of the devil. And it is the reason that many people my age change majors in college seven times and then can’t find a job that they enjoy. Even something you love can become meaningless, boring, or burdensome if you are doing it in the flesh, by self-effort. Nothing you do in the flesh has any power to produce the fruit of the Spirit, namely love, joy, peace, patience, etc. These are the things we are longing to find in our daily work, and these are the things that we need to perform our daily activities and interactions, but these fruits cannot be produced by the work of the flesh. We know this, and yet we fail to trust God to perform through us, by His Spirit, even the smallest tasks. Even washing dishes can become an act of worship if you let the Holy Spirit work through you, with thanksgiving to Him. This is not because washing dishes is important! It is because you are washing dishes for the Lord with His help! Don’t you know that God wants to live through you? He wants to be intimately involved in our lives. The Holy Spirit wants to be a co-laborer with you to empower you.

Worship is not by means of a particular activity; worship is by means of the attitude of your heart. Anything done for God with thanksgiving and dependence on Him is worship. However, I wouldn’t go so far as to say that everything done in the flesh is sin. Maybe this is something that God will have to reveal to me, but I cannot see how sharpening your pencil in the flesh is an outright sin. But at the same time, it doesn’t bring pleasure to God either. It is simply meaningless and counts for nothing as far as worship goes. God will reward the widow in heaven for offering her last penny for the Lord, trusting Him to provide her needs. Meanwhile, the businessman who pulled himself up by his own bootstraps, established a billion-dollar company and then gave millions away to charity will receive nothing in heaven because he did it all in self-effort without even acknowledging God. He has already received his reward. This principle seems backwards to our thinking, but, like it or not, it is the way the Kingdom works.

Last Sunday when Pastor Carter, the senior pastor here at TSC, returned from vacation, he confirmed what God has been showing me since before I moved here and which I have been writing about in my blog entries. Pastor Carter related to the congregation that Sunday morning (August 9^th) how he and Pastor Teresa, his wife, experienced one of the most rewarding seasons of prayer while on vacation. He then announced his message, entitled “The Secret of Spiritual Power.” I will not relate the content of that sermon here. Instead I encourage you all to listen to this message yourself. You can download it at http://www.tscnyc.org/sermons.php. And just what is the secret of spiritual power? Servanthood. After hearing his sermon, which he based from Luke 22:24-30, I became even more convinced of what God informed me that He would be dealing with me about while I am here at Times Square Church: “Establishing my authority from a low place.” Not only that, but it is evident to me now that the Lord is very interested in instilling this principle and lifestyle, by the Spirit, in all of His Church abroad, or at least His church in Times Square. It is by following in Jesus’ footsteps—being a servant to all—that we will receive/achieve greatness and authority from God—(cf. Luke 22:28-30). And this is always the case. If you think that once you are anointed a delegated authority for God that you can stop serving, you have missed the point entirely: ministry (service) and authority are inseparable. One has received authority because he or she has been given a ministry.

And so, here I am at Times Square Church just serving. Yet this is the highest thing anyone can do. But remember this: if we serve and invest in man/for man, we will always be disappointed or discouraged because we are looking at results or depending on our efforts. But if we do everything as ministry to the living God with dependence on Him we will not be disappointed for it will no longer be results or success or striving that matters, but Spirit-empowered obedience to God. Disobedience and God-ordained authority cannot co-exist.

Lord, enable us to serve with total dependence upon Your power to perform, and help us to serve others, not begrudgingly, but as serving You.

Promises, Blessing, and chastisement

Today marks a small milestone. Exactly one month ago I left my home state, friends, and family of Alabama to live here in New York City. Just getting out of my complacency and coming to Times Square Church has sparked a powerful chain of events which will render my life altered forever. This may sound like an exaggeration, but I assure you it is not. God is fulfilling His promises, providing for me like never before, and humbling me like never before too! I was just telling Helen last night that God is making me more painfully aware of myself and my shortcomings. And I am becoming more convinced than ever of my need of Jesus, my savior. I cannot even pray without Him. I cannot even overcome minor irritations apart from Him. I need salvation and sanctification; and HE is my salvation and sanctification. I want to continually be thankful, no matter how I may feel about myself at the moment. It is amazing! Here are some examples of what I am talking about:

1) For the first time in five years, (and only the second time ever) I am in a courting relationship with a girl. And not just any girl, mind you. This would not be the awesome provision of God if Helen were not such a gem. She is a very dear friend and has a unique intimacy with God that I admire most of all. God tells her special things.J So I am very thankful for her and I want to praise her publically so that all of you will know. For the first time ever, my loneliness is subsiding, despite the fact that we are 900 miles away from each other.

2) I have more money than I’ve ever had. First of all, the week I left, several of the brethren donated what I consider to be an exorbitant amount of money for “my cause.” That is laughable! I’m just so blessed that anyone would even consider donating funds to me. My brother in the Lord and co-worker, Hector, and I were just recently blessed with some painting work outside the church, in Brooklyn at John and Teresa Ash’s new house. In addition to our regular hourly wage that the church pays us, Ms. Teresa also paid me, Hector, and his son extra for the work!! I asked Hector afterwards, “What do I do with this money?” I was thinking that I should get rid of it because I already have more than enough. But he gave me some good counsel: “God wants us to be generous, but He also wants us to be wise and save. Of course you should tithe off of that money, but you should save the rest because you don’t know what the Lord may have for you to do with it later. Maybe a mission trip; maybe more schooling, or a monetary donation later.” I do need to pay off my student loans, after all. I might add that God has blessed me with wise and godly co-workers. I praise God for Hector. He is a great man of prayer.

3) In addition to those things, the Lord has been exposing me and showing me what a hypocrite I am. Don’t even think for a minute that I’m about to go on a tirade of self-condemnation. This has been an answer to much prayer and the gentle discipline of the God who loves me and counts me as a son. He wants me to be sanctified. It is His will. It’s just that I am more in tune with it now. The best part about it is the renewed dependence on God that I have. I realize just how worthless and futile self-effort is. I am sensitive to every little irritation and every ounce of pride. The fact is, I don’t want to be this way (to be infected with pride), but I cannot seem to help caring so much about other people’s perception of me, and the inability to be patient, humble, and kind in the face of intimidation, judgment, correction (no matter how unnecessary I see it as), and scruples that I have, like people who talk too much and don’t listen enough, or people who make assumptions about me. These things are not merely their problem. They are primarily my problem, for it matters to God how I deal with them. Instead of snapping back a smart remark at people, or, depending on the situation, feeling the need to defend myself, I should just humble myself before God and find my identity in Him. For, you see, I seem to care more about maintaining a reputation of intelligence than I care about maintaining utter dependence on God. Some of you are rightly thinking, “Yeah, I can see how that would be the case with you.” And you’re right! I’m sick of getting agitated though, just because someone tries to tell me something that I think I already know how to do. I tell myself that I want to learn and want to be corrected if I don’t know something. Why then can’t I endure it if someone attempts to teach me something that I already know? Instead of receiving it, I take it as an insult to my intelligence, as if they are purposefully trying to make me feel stupid. But even if they are, it matters how I react to it. It matters that I do not defend myself, because if I defend myself to that person it means that I am giving them the right to judge me. I put myself on trial and set them up as judge and jury over me. But only God is our judge! If I really believed that, then I would just let God be my judge and say nothing or little in response to those who knowingly or unknowingly reproach me.

I am also convinced that the only way to have deliverance from such attitudes is to receive the holiness of God; and to receive it from Him by spending time with Him in prayer. Proverbs 9:10 says, “Knowledge of the Holy One IS understanding.” If you want to know anyone you must spend time with them. If I really want to be understanding, I must spend time getting to know God intimately. If I want to be holy as God wants me to be, then I must receive it from the Holy One. This is the only way. The flesh counts for nothing. I will never be any different if I keep striving. I can only cast myself at the feet of the Lord Jesus and ask Him to transform me into His image. He is more than willing to do that.

Spiritual Warfare and Apologetics

Today I went to the Barnes and Noble bookstore on Fifth Avenue and 46^th street. I bought a book by Mortimer J. Adler entitled Ten Philosophical Mistakes. After that I visited the New York Public Library, where the beginning of Ghostbusters the movie was filmed…you know, where the two statues of lions sit adjacent to each other in front? Can you tell by my activity on this, my day off, that I like to read? More than that, I like learning. I want to tell you that the NY Public Library is vast and the selection is expansive. They have the largest collection of religious literature and references that I have ever seen! The picture that I posted is a painting of Moses dashing the Ten Commandments to pieces. The man sitting below the painting is there to give you a point of reference about the scale of the painting, although he may not have known that was his role for this blog. There are several impressive works of art like this in the Library. I can’t wait to see the museums in New York! I also took pictures of the Guttenberg Bible, circa 1466! It was one of the first documents ever printed on the printing press, in fact I think it is the first, but I was too busy paying attention to the Bible itself to read the whole caption describing it. The Guttenberg Bible is the first printed copy of the Latin Vulgate. I would post the pictures, but they aren’t very clear—the Bible just looks like a regular old book. And isn’t that true? The Bible appears to be just another book passed down to us from antiquity. But I want to tell you with the utmost conviction that the Bible is the very Word of God and it was passed down from antiquity for the very purpose to give us a tangible point-of-reference by which to pattern our lives, gain faith and doctrine, and preserve the truth about God, and specifically Jesus Christ. It is our standard by which to judge ourselves, like a measuring tape for a precise cut of wood. But unfortunately, as Paul conveys,

“But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament (the Scriptures), because the veil is taken away in Christ. But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty…But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”—2 Corinthians 3:14-17; 4:3-4.

There is a little known fact about me, which only my close friends realize, and I want to express that fact right up front. I am a Christian who believes in both the Scriptures and the power of God; the Spirit and truth. I am a Charismatic Biblicist—or at least that’s the best explanation I can think of. I appreciate balance. So many times these days I find Christians who either emphasize one or the other—dead religionists, on one end of the spectrum, who only stress the importance of fidelity to the Bible, and on the other end, religious fanatics who only care about feelings, so-called moves of the Spirit, and ecstatic religious experiences. But the early church fathers weren’t that way. The great revivalists weren’t that way. And I praise God the pastoral leadership here at Times Square Church are not that way. They all stress the importance of BOTH life by/in the Spirit of God and belief in right doctrine, or the truth as revealed in the Scriptures. The combination of those (and nothing less) leads to salvation through sanctification—cf. 2 Thessalonians 2:13. That being said, I am convinced that in order for the veil of blindness to be removed from those who are perishing, I must pray and engage in spiritual warfare on their behalves against the god of this age, and that I must engage in intellectual warfare against every vain philosophy that sets itself up against the knowledge of God; in two words, intercessory prayer and apologetics. I am merely insisting on what I, as one member of the Body of Christ, must do. This is what I am compelled to do in order to reach the lost for Jesus and edify the body of Christ. The reason should be obvious. First of all, we fight not against flesh and blood, but against powers, principalities, and rulers of darkness in the heavenly realms. So we must engage in spiritual warfare to aid evangelism. Second, and more tangible, is the fact that many pseudo-scholars, scientists, and the self-proclaimed intellectually elite have perpetrated and perpetuated ideas that criticize the historical, scientific, and theological integrity of the Scriptures, and thus undermine faith in God for untold millions. It is the task of apologetics to expose such vain ideas as the falsehoods that they are by using sound arguments based on good evidence. (And make no mistake. There IS good evidence to believe in the Bible. Just read The Case for Christ as merely one example. Or go online and listen to apologetic lectures by Ravi Zacharias and William Lane Craig, to name a few.) Apologetics is useful to remove any excuse that the skeptic and unbeliever may have. This discipline serves to show the skeptics that the Bible is not just another old, out-dated book, but that it is indeed reasonable to believe wholeheartedly that the Bible is the inerrant, infallible Word of God. The combination of these two tactics will be a powerful aid in evangelism, will restore unwavering faith in the Bible and bring about true deliverance in the Spirit. Somehow, this is my task, and I’m not alone, although I wouldn’t impose my calling on anyone else. Pray for me as I continually prepare for this ministry, both here and elsewhere. And remember, Jesus has appointed YOU as a specific member of the body with specific gifts and passions for a specific ministry. If you don’t know what that ministry is yet, please seek the presence of the Lord diligently until He shows you. The power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us is the most precious gift we have and the most important for enabling in our ministry. (Might I add that the Holy Spirit is not an “it.” That is neither grammatically accurate to the Bible, nor respectful of God. The Holy Spirit is God with us. He is our only direct and intimate connection to the Godhead at this time and we cannot live without Him.)

Also, would you pray for me and my special friend Helen as we get to know each other with intentions of considering each other for a more long-term relationship? Helen and I are communicating regularly from a distance. She is in Alabama (via England) and I am here in New York. We just desire God’s perfect will for each of us.

Thanks and grace to you all.