Encountering the Father's Heart

It was a Kingdom come kind of day. 25 people gathered - mainstream white, Latino gangsters and Lummi Nation who are becoming sons and daughters, ex-offenders from prison, rappers and worship leaders - all seeking to connect more deeply to the Father heart of God.

People talked about their relationships with their own dads and how that has affected their relating to God as Father, then forgave their dads. We talked about how our experience of the reconciling work of Jesus begins in the places where we need to be reconciled with one another - when we forgive as our heavenly Father forgives we are becoming children of God. As we walk in this, we see our need to be reconciled with our heavenly Father.

At the end of our time one young man spoke up about feeling deeply and painfully alone. As he shared his pain, these gangsters and others admitted their own aloneness and came around him to pray with and for him. "No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us." (1 John 4:12) What seemed, initially, to take us back a step from all we had been talking about actually moved us out of our individual attempts to experience a deeper connection with the Father to experiencing a deeper sense of our adoption by connecting to our family through one expressing their need.

It was a beautiful moment. One said, "Healing is cool thing to see and other signs of the Kingdom breaking in, but this is the greatest sign when the children are loving one another."

Treasure Hunt

I was listening to Bill Johnson's podcast yesterday and was challenged that the Spirit of the Lord is upon me - for a purpose. As I was sitting in the parking lot outside the Bellingham REI I asked the Holy Spirit to give me a clue for someone the Father wanted to bless through me. I immediately had the impression of a red and black plaid shirt, so I went looking (somewhat fearfully, I admit) and was relieved not to see such shirt at REI.

I went home and was doing laundry in the common house, having put this whole thing out of my mind, when I looked out the window and saw Ed, one of our community members, walking by in a red and black plaid shirt. Jesus reminded me that He had things for me to do here and it was time to do one of them. I saw Ed disappear into the wood shop and made my way over there. Glad to find him by himself we got to talking about this and that. Then I said, "This might sound strange to you, Ed, but I was praying this morning and asking God who He wanted to bless and I got a picture in my mind of a red and black plaid shirt. I think God wants to bless you today. Would it be okay if I prayed a blessing for you?" He didn't hesitate and said yes; he straightened up from the workbench and closed his eyes. I put my hand on his shoulder and prayed a short prayer asking the Father to show His delight to Ed. When I finished he thanked me and we moved on to talk of other things.

Bless him again today, Father.

prophetic praying

We were praying with a friend the other day. As we did God gave one of us a couple pictures from this friend's life when he was a boy in Mexico. They were traumatic events. As he shared them we could see that he was touched deeply.

I asked him later how he felt about hearing of these images in his prayer time. He said he felt very hopeful and full of joy because it meant that God was real and that God knew about him, and that he was never alone.

There are times when we pray and our approach is to help people make the direct connection to hear from Jesus for themselves. This is important, especially so that they aren't dependent upon anyone else for their connection with Jesus. But this reminds me how important prophetic words are - the secrets of our hearts are revealed and we will worship God and declare that God is really among us (1 Corinthians 14:25).

Removing the Blame

We were praying with John (not his name). This was the third time. As we had some worship music on and quietly invited Jesus to come bring healing to him, I asked Jesus what He wanted to do or what He wanted to show us. An image came to my mind of a rough post with a metal ridge a little higher than head height. I dismissed it, thinking I was dozing off. The image came back so I asked Jesus what it was about. The image expanded to reveal what appeared to be the inside of a barn and a young boy (around ten) kneeling, saying, "It wasn't my fault; it wasn't my fault." I saw other kids sitting on boxes or hay bales above him, laughing.

I asked John if something bad had happened in a barn when he was ten. He told us about how he had been jumping out of the hay loft. He added more hay to the pile so it was softer to land on. Later in the day, his cousin joined him and hurt himself badly by landing on a hay fork that was hidden in the pile. John ran off for help.

John mentioned that he was often around when things happened and would help but people suspected he was to blame for them as the "coincidence" of his presence at these events become more frequent. I felt like Jesus wanted to remove the label of "blame-taker" and scapegoat from him, and also that he might need to forgive himself for what happened that day.

I asked him if he could picture himself with Jesus at the cross. (The cross is the place of exchange - our sin for His forgiveness, our burdens for His yoke, our death for His life...). He said yes, and saw himself kneeling with Jesus in front of the cross. I asked him what his burden of guilt and blame looked like and would he give it to Jesus. I led him to forgive himself.

As we sat there praying, I watched him having this encounter with Jesus with a smile on his face. I thought we should go back to the memory in the barn and see where Jesus was, so I asked him if he'd want to go there. He said that he and Jesus were already there - Jesus was walking him around the outside of the barn and showing him that some workers had left the hay fork in the pile between the time he had been jumping and when his cousin jumped.

I don't know why I am surprised by that, as though Jesus needs my leading to do anything. I just love how Jesus met with John, first leading me, then leading him.

Getting Ready to Move

We will be moving at the end of the month. We are moving into a co-housing set up - http://www.bellcoho.com/. As we've prayed about this, we have felt that Jesus wants us here. This also means that we will be in Bellingham for another year, at least.

Riley

Riley Neelley
May 22, 1994 - September 5, 2009

"Dogs are created as social creatures to be family members. Riley was a member of the family. (Our) grief runs as deep as the gift he was to us."

Riding the Riley Train

Last week was an emotional rollercoaster for us with our long time companion, Riley. At fifteen and a half, Riley has been with me through miles of trails, four churches, nine houses and in two marriages. Though he has been slowing down as an old boy, last week he took a dramatic turn for the worst and stopped eating and mostly moving.

The vet took x-rays and found that both lungs were half collapsed. The radiologist said he has a mass in his chest and pneumonia. We started him on antibiotics but by Wednesday it appeared he was done. Even as we prepared for this, he picked up his head and started drinking some water. Eventually we got his pills in him and on Thursday, after three days of no eating, we got scrambled egg down him, morning and evening.

Now, a week later, his appetite and strength have picked up, though he still requires assistance. He is laying here, panting quietly as I type this.