Hello everyone. I got wrecked by this video today that highlights the need of so many people around the world for simple things that we take for granted…..like food. This video shows how even our leftovers are things that leave others thanking God for.
http://www.cultureunplugged.com/play/1081/Chicken-a%20la%20Carte
Let this video challenge us to 1) not be wasteful and 2) seek God for the needs of our world.
A few years ago, God connected me with someone who has become a very good friend of mine: Joe Gilletti. Joe has been a great encouragement to me and I’m thankful that he’s in my life.
He has a vision to see 500,000 young people experience the love and presence of God in the Midwest area. Sound big? You bet! Will it happen? Absolutely!
His vision is to launch what he’s calling Club 99′s all over the Midwest that will serve as a community center/outreach center to connect with young people – it’s going to be one of the most contemporary church models this country has ever seen.
On his blog (http://solomonig.typepad.com), Joe has posted a video in which he shares his heartbeat and passion for Club 99. Click here for the video link.
I invite you to watch this video and join with me in prayer that the Kingdom of God is brought to the Midwest in a whole new way!
Have you ever been blind-sided by an amazing concept found in something so simple? Have you ever walked by something (or someone) for weeks, months, or years, only to one day have an “Ah Ha!” moment and be impacted?
I went out for a brief walk at work today and I looked at one of the trees and saw that it was beginning to bud because, as the title of this post says, “Spring is here!”. I have never really taken the time to look at buds on a tree. I’m not a gardener, I’m not a botanist, I’m not a florist, and I would find a way to kill a chia-pet. But for some reason, today, God used a small little bud on a tree to speak something to me.
The first thing I noticed about the bud on the tree is that it seemed so innocent. The bud was largely undamaged. The flower or leaf inside the bud hadn’t had the chance or the opportunity to be damaged by wind or rain. It was partially protected yet partially beginning to unfold and become who it was meant to be.
The second thing that I noticed was hope. It wasn’t yet everything that it was destined to be, but to see a whole tree filled with buds spoke hope to me. Inside the bud were all the atributes of a beautiful flower or a vibrant green leaf, but you could only see part of what it was meant to become. We don’t yet see a tree full of leaves or flowers, but it’s the hope of something that will bring happiness to people, oxgen to the atmosphere, etc.
The third thing that I noticed was in some ways an application of the previous thoughts of hope and innocece: life. I immediately thought of parallels to my own life and our collective lives in Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:17 –
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away ; behold , all things are become new.
We are just like that bud. When we come to Christ, we are like that bud that I saw on the tree. We start out innocent. Much of who we are going to be and what we are going to accomplish is hidden to everyone..everyone but God. We have hope…hope that by being who God intended us to be that we can bring happiness and show Christ’s love to others. We feel full of life – new life. While we previously were calloused and hardened (much like the trunk of the tree), God made something beautiful out of our life.
As we grow and our destiny unfolds, there will be opportunities to be shaken by life..winds of adversity..trials..tribulations…rain…storms…but God knew what He was doing when He grafted you into the tree that He placed you into. He is our source of life, our source of hope, the One who holds our innocence and destiny in His hands.
Never forget the fact that the Bible doesn’t say that He will make new things, rather it says that He will make all things new. God has taken things that were previously existing (us) and made us new.
Let’s enjoy His presence and love and rest in the process that He has us in. Spring is here…this is a new season. I’m determined to bloom into what God wants me to be.
William Booth:
…In answer to your inquiry, I consider that the chief dangers which confront the coming century will be religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, and heaven without hell.
This past Sunday at Haven of Hope will go down as one of my favorite Sundays ever!! It was one of my favorite message that I’ve ever heard Pastor Jonathan preach! Even more powerful is that the word that he brought causes people to spring to action and seek healing from harmful mindsets regarding righteousness.
The word “Righteousness” is basically a government term that means to be in right standing with the authorities.
In the beginning, Adam and Even were in right standing with God; however, through sin/disobedience, they lost their identity and lose their right-standing with God – therefore becoming unrighteous.
Ever since that time, man has done everything that they could to become righteous again. God wanted to show man that through their own power, they’d never be able to be righteous. As we review the 10 commandments, all the feasts, and the 613 commandments found in the Old Testament, we see that it would be IMPOSSIBLE for anyone to actually do it all perfect and be righteous.
On our own, we CAN’T be righteous. We CAN’T do ANYTHING to EARN it! The kicker is that, even though Jesus came to be our righteousness and justify us, we STILL live in the mindset of the law that says “I can earn this…if I just prayed enough..if I just fasted enough…if I just followed this rule or that rule better….I could MAYBE become righteous. Jesus came on the scene and messed all that up.
Galatians 2:16 “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believe in Jesus Christ, that we miht be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law…”
Galatians 2:21 “I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain”
If someone came into our home and told us that what Christ did on the cross for us was useless, unnecessary, and accomplished nothing, I’d be taking part in an impromptu Holy Ghost beatdown!
YET…when you and I live our lives with the thought that what we DO can earn our righteousness, we frustrate the grace of God and act as though His death was in vain. Our righteousness is like “filthy rags”, but He is our hope.
As soon as the message was done, we had a tremendous time of healing! Everyone came forward and told God that we wanted to trust in HIS righteousness in our lives. We asked that the law would be dead, but that we would be alive in Christ! Awesome..that never gets old to see new people seeking God, enjoying His presence, and receiving physical, emotional, mental, etc. healing from harmful mindsets.
Embrace grace. Trust in His righteousness. Go kick some devil butt.
If you are interested in buying a copy of this week’s audio CD, please contact Jonathan Jaynes at jonatikon@yahoo.com.
A good friend of mine, Briant Mora, was able to spend time with a hero of the faith, T.W. Barnes. These words of wisdom that Briant received have really blessed me and I pray that it encourages you as well.
If you want a miracle ministry, you have to pray the miracles into existence.
1. Pray that you have a miracle in your mind
We need to have the mind of Christ.
1 Corinthians 2:16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
Philippians 2:5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus
2. Pray that you have a miracle in your eyes.
We need to see in the Spirit. God equips us with eyes of faith and belief. Help us to see the things that aren’t there in the natural but are there in the supernatural.
Ephesians 1:18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.
3. Pray that you have a miracle in your ears
We need to hear what the Lord is speaking to us, to the church, and to the world.
Revelation 3:22 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit said unto the churches…
4. Pray that you have a miracle in your heart
We need to love God the way He deserves to be loved.
We need to worship God the way He deserves to be worshipped.
We need to serve God the way He deserves to be served.
Deuteronomy 6:5 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
5. Pray that you will have a miracle in your emotions
We have to yield to the power of the Holy Ghost, so that Christ can take our emotions. Our emotions cannot be trusted. They go up and down. We cannot allow our emotions to dictate to us. We have to bring our emotions under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
Pray that Jesus would sit at the seat of your emotions. Pray that your emotions will become the fruit of the Spirit.
Author Unknown:
Never let the work that God does THROUGH you be greater than the work God does IN you
For those of you who haven’t heard….God has been up to some AMAZING things at Haven of Hope!! As of Easter 2009, Haven of Hope has been around for 3 years. Pastor Jonathan and Pastor Rebecca started Haven of Hope with a consuming passion to see the Kingdom of God manifested in our city and in the lives of OUR generation.
My wife Heidi and I came to Haven of Hope at about the halfway point in November 2007. When the Lord first told us to go to Haven of Hope and move from Connecticut to Massachusetts, many people thought that we were nuts! We had great jobs, great contacts with people, we were teaching tons of Bible studies, I was preaching almost weekly through Connecticut, we owned our own house, and my wife was 6 months pregnant. All this translated to some people thinking that we had lost our minds!
When we arrived in November 2007, we averaged anywhere from 12-15 people at our Sunday Encounter. From November 2007 through March 2008, God was speaking to us as a church family to get ready for something BIG! Here are some highlights of what God has done at Haven of Hope since March 2008:
- Over 130 1st-time guests have come to visit Haven of Hope
- Our weekly attendance between Sunday Encounter and Thursday night Life Groups has quadrupled and we now average anywhere between 45 and 60 individuals
- Haven of Hope is truly reaching OUR generation. Our primary demographic at Haven of Hope is individuals (both single and married) in their 20′s and 30′s. We do have a wide variety of age groups and we do seek to reach ALL generations, but we are thankful that we are being a light to our generation.
- Individuals who walked into Haven of Hope as athiests have left having professed a belief in Jesus Christ and submitting to His Lordship! We watched them as tears rolled down their cheeks and they enjoyed the presence of God. They felt something that they can no longer deny!
- People have been baptized! Please pray that we will have our own building someday. Right now, when we do baptisms, it’s like a Holy Ghost drive by as we run into the Best Western, dunk ‘em, and then pretend to swim! 
- Multiple healings and deliverances! Here is a partial list of the giants that have been falling: back pain, neck pain, depression, fear, anger, pornography & lust, etc.
- Each week, we declare things about the Kingdom of God coming into various areas of our lives and the Northeast region. Jobs, raises, bonuses, favor with our bosses, signs and wonders, supernatural power, etc. People have been laid off and hired back by their old company only 4 weeks later making more money than they were before (that one was me!), people have moved from various states and God blessed them with jobs here, we’ve seen breakthrough in the Boston Metrowest economy, etc.
This is only the beginning! There is a passionate generation rising up at Haven of Hope that are not satisified with status quo. We are seeking to be Ambassadors that will bring the Kingdom of God to earth in our circles of influence.
In the future, we’ll do a better job of keeping folks updated about what God is doing here.
Be encouraged and join with us in prayer that God will continue to show up in crazy, extravagant ways at Haven of Hope.
God bless!!
Matthew Legere
P.S. This blog post can also be found at http://www.champ.org/blogs.html courtesy of Dr. Wendell Hutchins of Church of Champions in Texas.
Paris Reidhead:
Two young Moravians heard of an island in the West Indies, where an atheist British owner had 2,000 to 3,000 slaves. And the owner had said, “No preacher, no clergyman will ever stay on this island. If he’s shipwrecked, we’ll keep him in a separate house until he has to leave but he’s never gonna talk to any of us about God. I’m through with all that nonsense.
Three thousand slaves from the jungles of Africa brought to an island in the Atlantic and there to live and die without hearing of Christ. Two young Moravians heard about it. They sold themselves to the British planter then used the money they received from the sale, for he paid no more than he would for any slave, to pay their passage out to his island for he wouldn’t even transport them.
And as the ship left the river at Hamburg…left its pier at the river at Hamburg and was going out to the North Sea, carried with the tide. The Moravians had come from Hermhut to see these two lads off, in their early twenties, never to return again. For this wasn’t a four-year term, they’d sold themselves into lifetime of slavery. Simply that as slaves they could be as Christians for these other were.
The families were there weeping for they knew they’d never see them again. And they wondered why they’re going and questioned the wisdom of it. And as the gap widened and the houses had been cast off and were being curled up there on the pier. And the young boys saw the widening gap, one lad, with his arm linked through the arm of his fellow, raised his hand and shouted across the gap the last words that were heard from them. They were these: “May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering”. And this became the call of Moravian missions. And this is the only reason for being, that the Lamb that was slain may receive the reward of His suffering.
The following is a post by Philip Cameron who heads up a ministry called STALL. This ministry is seeking to turn the tide against sex trafficking in the European country of Moldova and eventually throughout Europe.
At the STALL website, you can watch videos of what their ministry is about. As I watched these videos yesterday, I was overcome with a variety of emotions. Anger (how could this happen?!?)…Guilt (this was happening the whole time and I didn’t even give it any concern or prayer?!?)…Sadness (these girls don’t seem to have any hope!)….and eventually Hope (awareness regarding this issue is increasing and it’s my hope that my generation will rise up and contend with this evil and say “Enough!”.
For further information on this, you can email my good friend Steve Hogan at stevelhogan@msn.com. He and his wife Karen are starting to get more involved with this ministry and I want to thank them for introducing me to this!
“Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, great and awesome, and fight for your brethren, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses.” Nehemiah 4:14 (NKJV).
Nehemiah was busy obeying God by leading the inhabitants of Jerusalem in the rebuilding of the city’s walls. Things were going well; the people had a mind to work, we are told, and the wall was half-finished. Then a couple of troublemakers, Sanballat and Tobiah, when they saw that simple derision wasn’t working, moved on to active conspiracy against Nehemiah.
Nehemiah’s first reaction was to pray. It’s a good sign of your spiritual health when prayer is the first thing that comes to mind. But prayer isn’t a substitute for action; it isn’t a cop out from the responsibilities God has called us to carry out.
After he prayed, Nehemiah set a watch. If the enemy attacked, they would be ready. The Bible tells us that some built with one hand, and carried a weapon with the other. Nehemiah knew that the building of the walls was vital if these people were to survive and see their dream of a rebuilt Jerusalem become a reality. He made the people realize that if they wanted their families to be safe, no effort could be spared — they had to fight for their families!
The opposition really got going at the halfway stage; that’s a particularly vulnerable time. You’ve worked long and hard and you know you’ve got all that to do again — the perfect moment for discouragement to set in. You’ve also done enough to prove you’re serious! When Nehemiah and those with him got those walls halfway built, that’s when their enemies really started getting nervous. As long as you look like you won’t achieve anything for God, the enemy won’t worry too much about you, but when you start getting things done — get ready for a fight. Satan will do his best to stir up trouble whenever he can, but if you really do start winning loved ones to Christ, or if you just appear to be starting to win the battle for their hearts and minds, you can be certain this won’t go unnoticed. Just as you think you’re getting somewhere with your family, don’t be surprised if it starts to feel like you are in a war zone.
Don’t forget that the fight doesn’t always involve a frontal assault. Sanballat and Tobiah tried all kinds of tricks, but Nehemiah stayed vigilant and wasn’t fooled by any of it. When it comes to fighting for the salvation of our loved ones, we need to be on the lookout for anything that’s designed to get us sidetracked. The enemy will try to get you focused on anything except winning your family members to Jesus. If he can get you distracted or discouraged, you won’t be winning souls in your household. All kinds of issues can suddenly seem to be important, and they may really be important, but you can’t let anything knock you off your battle plan. Even our well-intentioned desire to see our loved ones “living right” can get us so far off target that instead of fighting the enemy, we end up fighting with the very person we’re trying to win.
Every day, a little bit more needs to get done. If you’re focusing your efforts on a particular loved one, what will you do today to touch them with the gospel? I’m not talking about preaching at them, I’m talking about a deliberate strategy to both generate and seek out opportunities to make Jesus real to them. It might be a simple selfless act that says much more about what’s really in your heart than all the preaching in the world ever could. There’s no telling what will be the catalyst that brings your loved one into the Kingdom, but if the praying is still getting done first, and the actions of battle are prudently planned and diligently executed, this is most certainly a fight you can win.
Remember what you are fighting for — it’s your family’s eternal salvation that’s at stake. If you’re under attack, remember the One who is fighting with you. The fight may be on, but we have God’s strength to call on, and He has promised us the victory. Opposition may be coming, and the wall may be only half built, but “Remember the Lord, great and awesome, and fight for your brethren, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses.” Household Salvation is worth fighting for!
This past Wednesday, my son Connor heard that Daddy had a headache. He told my wife Heidi that when I come home, he wants to pray for me.
For those of you who don’t know Connor, he will be 3 years old in April!
When I came home, Heidi had to remind him what he said at the dinner table, but when she did, he says “Oh yeah!” and grabs my hands and prays for daddy’s headache.
Watch out world! My son is learning the habits and importance of prayer at a young age. He is going to grow up thinking that praying with people on the spot is normal….and it is.
William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army:
You must do it You cannot hold back. You have enjoyed yourself in Christianity long enough. You have had pleasant feelings, pleasant songs, pleasant meetings, pleasant prospects…..now then, go to God and tell Him you are prepared as much as necessary to turn your back upon it all, and that you are willing to spend the rest of your days struggling in the midst of these perishing multitudes, whatever it may cost you. You must do it.
Hello everyone…sorry for the delay in getting new content to my blog. Heidi and I have been extremely busy with some life transitions, but I think I’ll have some more time now to post.
God has been doing some amazing things at Haven of Hope and I’ll be sharing some of that with you in the next few days.
Keep my family in your prayers. Connor has pnemonia and is on anti-biotics and Hunter has been sick as well. I actually prayed the other day about Connor and said “Asthma, pnemonia, and acid reflex – you guys messed with the wrong kid! I’m putting you on notice!”….
Love you guys – let’s keep in touch.
