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PROMISES, PROMISES! (A shameless jaunt into plagiarism)

   This is just too good to bypass.  I am a fan of Spurgeon and I am bringing Charlie into blogdom.  This a not a theft of Spurgeon’s style--no one alive or dead could do that--but it is a commentary on the world’s greatest wordsmith's thoughts on a needed message for us today.  I am talking about what to do about promises.  Most of us are up to our eyeballs in promises and troubled about inadequacies and deficiencies, the answers to which are named in those promises.
    Let me speak with Spurgeon: God's promises are meant to be used, not just memorized and celebrated. God is not made poorer because of His gifts to you and me.  He’s no less holy for making us holy.  He is no less powerful by granting us His power, no less pure by giving us His purity.  Still rich after enriching us!  He promises salvation but we must seize it and after receiving forgiveness, purity, justification and favors aplenty there are limitless blessings to be had, promises waiting for the taking right now.  You have received the words of the promise, what are you waiting for.
 

Come, ye sinners poor and needy,
Lost and ruined by the fall;
If we wait until we are better,
We will never come at all.

 
   Here we are, standing in limitless grace with promises surrounding us, above and below, to the right and to the left, behind us and before us.  This is where David was when he sounded these astounding words:
 

“Lord, God, you’ve said it, Now do it! (1 Samuel 7:25 Paraphrased)”

 
   Is God offended at such seeming audacity?  Not at all! He loves to be confronted by such boldness.  Your heavenly Banker delights to cash in His own notes.  He loves being reminded of his promises with boldness, more ready to hear than you are to ask.  His sun is not weary of shining, nor his fountains of flowing.  It is His splendid nature to produce what He has promised and awaits your insistent claim.  So come to Him saying to Him, “Do as you have said!”
   Now just do it! I am . . .right now.
 
(Taken from Spurgeon’s Daily devotional, January 15 AM, with a few words exactly as he wrote them)

PRESENCE OR PRESENTS?

One has to try to make the two words sound differently. The only difference I’ve noted is that in the first (Presence) my tongue touches the roof of my mouth ever so softly while in the latter (presents) the tongue strikes rather sternly, sounding the "t".  Parenthetically, note that I always in this little treatise capitalize Presence, leaving presents in lower case.   Fact is, they are a world apart.  It began this morning as I addressed myself to meet God, either being questioned by Him or questioning myself about Him.  Am I coming to God for His Presence or his presents? Am I coming to Him to get what He has to give or am I coming to find Him? I immediately confessed that I was enamored with things that are mine because I love God and try to live a decent lifestyle.  Almost simultaneous with this thought was that these “presents” apart from His Presence are really not totally satisfying.  It takes His Presence to make the presents meaningful.   

Come to think of it, every time I go to Him for help whether in the form of healing, or relief from inner pain, or clarity amid mystery, my answer comes as I experience Him!  In the process of prayer what I was asking for primarily was resolved but what resolved it was the coming of God into conscious awareness in His Presence.   

God is funny in this way:  He seems to want to come personally into our experiences along with any blessing we ask for.  I get the feeling that He really adores us and likes hanging out with us and doesn’t mind being asked silly questions to which he has eternally known the answers.  Example: “Why did the Israelis have to gather the manna daily when You could have supplied a month’s measure?”  If God was to speak audibly I think He might have said, “You just don’t get it do you?  I want you to be mindful of Me all the time and if I blessed you with all these presents you desire, you would soon be thinking more of the presents (what I give) than My Presence (Who I am).  

We get a hint at the difference in the two words when we read that God made His acts known to Israel while he made known to Moses His ways (Psalm 103:7).  They sought God’s presents while Moses went all the way and got the Presence of God.   

Most of us started out all wrong in the first place. It was the nature of the invitation.  "Come get what God has, receive His gifts, His salvation, His presents." This is only one side of the gigantic relationship that heaven desires for us.  It is not the present of salvation that equips us for time and eternity; it is His eternal Presence that is the singular dynamic of salvation now and forever!   

Let’s go for His Presence in 2010!

Happy New Year!

I generally am led at the beginning of the year to a verse or passage of Scripture that satisfies and summarizes inner longings and desires and for the past two years, 2008-2009 have centered on 1 Corinthians 2:9-10:

 

“Eye has not seen, nor has ear heard, nor has it entered into the hearts of men

The things that God has prepared for those who love Him,

But God has revealed tem to us by the S, for the Spirit searches all things,

 Even the deep things of God.”

 

I was not disappointed when, at the end of the old year, I had received no impression that 2010 was to introduce any new passage from the Bible. But this morning as Friede and I had an ocean view breakfast followed by a time of devotion, God gave us this passage that summed up our desires and passions for 2010:

 “My eager expectation and hope is that

I will not be ashamed about anything,

But, that now as always, with all boldness,

Christ will be highly honored in my body,

Whether by life or by death,

For me living is Christ and dying is gain.

Philippians 1:20-21

 

Well, that covers it for me.   This “eager expectation and hope” has been decreed. It involves from here to eternity and beyond.  I hesitantly included the words “whether by life or by death”. I say hesitantly because I discovered many years ago that I didn’t like to think of his world without me in it.  In my opinion and for the time being, “alive” beats all alternatives, hands down. But if by some strange eventuality my address suddenly changes from earth to heaven, my body will have made its ultimate offering and my spirit will be free.  So my body in death will simply be an ascending means of high honor to Him whose body sets the pattern for our future: Absent from the body, present with the Lord. 

 

As a profitable P.S. hang this one around your neck or put it on your doorpost of between yours eyes as of old:                                

“Living for me is Christ and

Dying is gain!’

Philippians 1:21

 

So one way or the other, HAPPY 2010!

TWO THOUSAND TEN . . . GOOD NEWS OR BAD?

    I will spare you the toil of reading how bad things seem to be on Planet Earth. You will find plenty of that elsewhere. Anybody with one eye and two brain cells working can see that the world seems to have hit a rough patch of road.  We’ve seen nothing exactly like it before, at least as we listen to the news and read the papers.
   I will also avoid projecting prophetic hopes of how good things are going to be, at least until I hear an audible voice from heaven or see a gigantic vapor trail message in the skies.  I have made a very serious decision about the year 2010: I have decided not to participate in bad news bearing or good news projections.  Both of these approaches assume something never promised of God, namely that our hope lies in external and lateral things.  I have made a pact with my eyes, ears and mouth that I will gaze upon the Lord with the eyes, listen more attentively to Him with the ears  and speak with the mouth what I see and hear from Him!
   I will not live in the “ifs” . . . “if” I lose my income, “if” I get sick, “if” catastrophe happens in my family, “if” a hurricane or tornado flattens my town! I have better things than to do than live in If-ville. I received an E-mail suggesting that we might convert “IF” into an acronym : IN FAITH. Good idea!

   So, on the cusp of  my 76th New Year celebration (the first several I don’t remember), I look away from and close my ears to reports based on what is happening or might happen externally and laterally.  I choose to open my mouth and speak in agreement with what God has said in his Word:

    “No one’s ever seen or heard anything like this,
    Never so much as imagined quite like it –
    What God has arranged for those who love him.
    But you have seen and heard it because God,
    By his Spirit, has brought it all out into the open before you.”

                                        (1 Corinthians 2:9-10) The Message)

   I already feel better!  I have seen these words with weary eyes, heard myself read  them and feel like facing 2010 and congratulate myself on my decision to see, hear and speak from a determined focus to find “all my springs in Him”! I faintly hear God saying, "Just you wait until I show you for what I have prepared for you!"

   Now, allow me to say it again with gusto:   HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Looking on, listening to and speaking of the King and His Kingdom!

Jack Taylor

HOME ALONE AND IN WONDER (A late Christmas meditation)

   I just arrived home a few minutes ago from spending Christmas with family in Orlando.  Friede is with her family in Georgia and will be home to celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary on December 28.
   I can't remember the last time I drove through a couple of cities at the end of Christmas Day.  Headed home to spend Christmas Night alone, I began to take note of how few businesses were open even early in the evening. The raucous noise of protest seems to worsen during this season.  The intent seems more intense to do away with Christmas having anything to do with Jesus.  Irony seized my mind.  Though much of the world argues and most of it disregards, the one person, the babe in the manger, the Lord Jesus Christ, has single-handedly shut everything down on this day, at least in these United States.
   Though It's easy to shoot full of holes the way we celebrate Christmas, and be troubled about the attempts to separate the days of song and spending from thoughts about this One Solitary Life; it seems inevitable He always comes through.  He is more apparent and certain to those of us who take a moment to stop, look and listen.  I do that now as the final hours of Christmas Day slip into history and the possibilities and potential of 2010 loom large on the horizon.
   I have heard from folks all over the country, cards, Christmas newsletters, E-mails, phone calls, texting (yes, I am learning to text, painfully, slowly and resisting all the way) and am mighty grateful for friends all over the world.
   But here I am, home alone and lost in wonder.  I am astonished when I think about that night of nights when the clouds were punctured with the songs of angels, when the star appeared pointing to where He was born and the shepherds left their herds with questions.  The night when peace on earth was sounded from heaven.  By all considerations, it could have and should have all been forgotten.  It was all so unbelievable, so sudden, so soon past.  But the world has not for a moment forgotten that young woman, that borrowed stable when this baby was born, echoing a prophetic utterance spoken seven hundred years before, "For unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given . . . "  It seems well that we not forget the rest of that statement since the first part has been so dramatically fulfilled: "And the government shall be upon His shoulders and He shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His dominion shall never end and its increase will never end; the zeal of the Lord of Hosts will accomplish this (Isaiah 9:6-9)
   Wow!  I am astonished.  There is a connection between that night, that young mother, that dirty stable, those strange things heard in the night and the desperate state of our world. What the above claims Him to be is exactly what this worried, weary world needs.  He fits the job description perfectly and Here He is with me right now, His Spirit, living in and around me, His presence watching this world, Immanuel, God with us.
   Excuse me, I have about three hours to enjoy the wonder of this day and ponder the future in the light of all it means.
   At home alone and in wonder but wild with expectation because  . . . of that child, that Son, that night and the sense of that Presence here now!
Jack Taylor
Christmas Night, 2009

WHAT’S GOING ON?

I’m rather sure this is what many of you are asking since the launch of SonsLink Ministries some months ago.  Well, let me give some answers to that question whether you have asked it or not, mostly in headlines.

   Tim has been working on the data base with our Dimensions Secretary, Brenda Godson and it is up and running as are the coffewithjack.com  and sonslink.com Websites.  Check out our first ad on specials for Christmas of important books for your library at a discount.

   Contacts with sons are occurring everywhere in every way.  A twenty-one day odyssey  found us in the Texas Panhandle, western Oklahoma and Houston, Texas in powerful times.  Then to top off the fall saga we spent almost a week amid the culture of honor in Redding, California, Bethel Church where Bill Johnson is the pastor. The events surrounding the experiences were grand with a team of us from nine states on the Bethel campus last week end with the express purpose of honoring the culture of honor, Bill Johnson, his team and Bethel Church. It was a never-to-be-forgotten experience and all of us were seriously impacted.  Among other things, it was a sons event with around 10 sons of mine and several sons of Bob Phillips in meetings during the week end with astounding bonding and powerful connections made.

   Then for our last trip this year Friede and I leave for Colorado for six days in Denver and Colorado Springs for multi-purpose and multi-person contact as well as a church in New Covenant Church, Woodland Park where there is snow and subzero weather. Brrrr!

   Sons events in 2010 are being considered in tandem with events already planned. Spotting our sons (and daughters) had been a thrilling experience for Tim and Me. Tim was with us for the 21 days around Thanksgiving.

   You will be hearing from us on sonslink.com in the coming weeks as we prepare for all my materials to be made available to our sons including books, CD’s, PowerPoint Presentations, and other materials. I have lived for this moment in history!

   It became crystal clear this morning in a new way that God’s whole scenario springs from the Father’s relationship to the Son, a fact of Scripture hidden in plain sight but now becoming thrilling illuminations on a broad scale. At this moment God is raising up fathers and sons (daughters as well) and with alignment there will be a release of the power of God beyond imagination.

   There is in me a sense of something pending of eternal significance.  I am inexplicably excited and waiting for more illumination as we face 2010.  The figure “10” is significant: Ten commandments, the tithe, a tenth, ten by ten silver sockets in the foundation of the Tabernacle, ten “I am’s of Jesus in John’s Gospel.  It is the number of divine completion and accomplishment. I challenge you all to ask God what He wants you to believe Him for in 2010! Then get ready! God has awesome plans for 2010. Don’t miss it!

   God has set the global stage for the manifestation of the sons of God (Romans 8:19).  There is no panic in heaven, the throne is occupied and God, as always, has a plan.

   Read these Scriptures to prepare your heart for what God is about to do:

Isaiah 43:18-21

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.

See, I am doing a new thing!

Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?

I am making a way in the desert,

And streams in the wasteland.

The wild animals honor me, the jackals and the owls,

 

Because I provide water in the desert

And streams in the wasteland to give drink to my people,

My chosen people,

That the people I formed for myself may proclaim my praise.”

 

1 Corinthians 2:9-10

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived

What God has prepared for those who love ___

But he has revealed it to us by his Spirit.

 HAVE A JESUS-CENTERED MERRY CHRISTMAS!

From Graz to Innsbruck

The final week of our long journey away from our homeland, family, sons and all of you. 

Today we leave Graz where we have been since last Thursday, a grand experience with the lovely people at the Graz Vineyard.  Paul and Holly Miller are founders and pastors and a new son and daughter.

Repented from prior claim not to engage in mountain climbing but just couldn't resist the urge so we climbed the local mountain of choice Schoerkl Sunday and yesterday the little mountain in the center of Graz downtown, Schlossberg.  Survived without incident!

Pray for our final engagement near Imst in the Pitztal near Innsbruck.

Energy high, Kingdom real, family, friends, sons and all valued and the Kingdom remaining unshakable amid the shaking.

Six hours of breathtaking beauty through the Austrian Alps today and we will be praying for you all.

Singing in the Reign,

Jack & Friede

Final Report from Tanzania

Yesterday was "Kili" day, the day we give Kilimanjaro a "mild assault" which means we climb to the first "hut" (between 8,000 and 9,000 feet) Our purpose for this endeavor is to "get a feel" for the mountain and at the same time go to the place where believers in days past went to the place where their ancestors worshiped other gods. We will celebrate their achievements in prayer in breaking curses and agree with them that The Kingdom of God has come to earth and is moving throughout it. The eleven of us will pray for Tanzania and the nations of Africa and also pray for America and divine intervention.

The next day . . .KILI AT THE END OF DAY - From Jack's Perspective

Well, the "mild assault" was carried out yesterday. Kilimanjaro was everything but mild. The day was beautiful beyond description. The world's highest free-standing mountain stood clearly visible, proud and majestic, as we drove to the Morangu gate of the mountain park where we would begin our plans to trek trail to Maramba hut at 9,000 feet. "A snap" I thought as we walked the first hundred or so yards. The sights were breathtaking with the thick jungle giving way to welcome rays of the sun to relieve us from the early morning cold, a nearby murmuring stream from melting snows at the top of Kili whispering a welcome, blue monkeys feeding on leaves in the treetops . . . a veritable paradise!

Eleven of us (I, by far the eldest) would trek to Maramba, the first resting place for those who ascend to the peak. We were there to "have a do" at the famed mountain to see if we would like to engage her more seriously later. We would ascend to Maramba, have lunch, go a bit further to an old crater and come back to the base. It was soon obvious that age would give way to youth and, as my pace slowed, the others, including Friede, went on. My guide, brother of one of our favorite pastors, Pastor Moshe, stayed with me. Wilson was the best guide in the whole park, having ascended Kilimanjaro more than a thousand times. In my personal "mild assault" on Kili, she fought back! The trail's ascent became more serious, the rocks more treacherous. My lungs demanded more oxygen as we passed the 8,000 foot altitude mark (that's Denver plus 3,000 feet). My shoulders began to cry out for relief as the walking sticks demanded more strength. My leg muscles began to argue with me but my personal guide spurred me on. So on I went, eventually arriving at the half way mark where the others waited and congratulated.

My guide, fearing that I might not make it to the goal, took our lunches from the porters and the others left. Then began the most punishing period I can remember in a long time. What was bad became worse. What was worse became almost intolerable. Twice Wllson asked if I was ready for lunch. I refused, saying I wanted (?) to go on. Every known muscle of my body now joined my lungs in a violent protest but my weakening stubbornness persisted. Well, to make a long story rather brief, I made it . . . barely! The others, having already eaten their lunches, went on. The best wisdom was that my guide and I would begin our descent soon after lunch (a gem of an idea!) Believe it or not, the descent was worse, demanding more of already weakened muscles and taxing the ones little-used on the ascent. Lungs sought to come to my rescue as breathing became easier, giving me more resolve for the moment but no relief from my joints, bones, muscles and even parts of my brain, now a chorus, singing, "You idiot, why are you doing this to us?" Having no reasonable answer, I fought on.

Then came the best news of the day! Halfway down there was a road and a vehicle was on the way to pick me up! With absolutely no protest from me. I was waiting for the group at the base when they returned. Feeling defeated? Nah! Wiser by far. It's the morning after now, pain is subsiding, perspective is clearing. Kilimanjaro is in the past for me, the Kingdom is in my future and I will leave several sons to ascend to her summit. My heart will be with them and we will win. Friede made the entire trip up and down. Proud of her and a bit pleased with my wisdom in marrying a younger woman! I wear a T-shirt today that says in big letters across the front, JUST DONE IT and a map of Kili on the back. A lie? Nah, I will write on the back in small letters a-l-m-o-s-t! Now I leave such adventures to the younger set!.

Thanks for your prayers! Now, on the Germany and no more mountains. Then to the Austrian Alps, Graz, Innsbruck and Vienna and home August 4. Keep praying. Still Singing in the Reign!

Love to all of you!

Popi & Friede

Report from Africa and Call to Pray...

Dear Praying Friends Everywhere,

When we you awaken on Saturday, pray, pray, pray!  This is our last day of ministry in Tanzania.  My team is ministering in the largest church in Moshe, the nearest town to our hotel. Warfare is increasing but with it increasing numbers of deliverances, salvations,  and healings.  Poor devil, the more he does, the more God does.  How could he possible win, even when he seems to win, he loses BIG!

Pray for our debriefing on Sunday after which some team members go on safari, others go home and still others (Jack & Friede included) will make a mild assault  on Kilimanjaro  (one third the way up) on Monday!

To Germany Wednesday and the end of the trip in Austria.  Don't stop praying now!  Home on August 5.

Thanks for your praying to now!

Singing in the Reign,

Jack & Friede

Report From Tanzania - Thursday, July 10, 2009

Just a brief report from 7 hours ahead...

Wonderful day Thursday.  I participated in a Pastors' Conference in the AM and in a rally out in the open with Masai herdsmen and their flocks all over the valley around us.  Powerful anointing with pastors and wonderful response in the afternoon rally.

Friede spoke at Womens' conference three times and will speak three more today. Powerful anointing and good response.

Lutherans, Pentecostals and all have come together and opened their churches to us and Global Missions Awareness, Leif Hetland, president.

We go to Marungu today, near the gate of Kilimanjaro Park, where the elevation will be around 5 ,000 feet and cold.  We still plan to go up Kili at around 8,000 feet on Monday...around a six hour trek.

Pray for us today as some warfare is being experienced personally and many afflicted by evil spirits. Many are being healed and there is so much illness of every kind: Blindness, eye disorders, stomach disorders, deafness, mental illness, skin problems, paralysis, deformities and the like.  So much need!  It is overpowering to the human mind, a world destined for His reign in so much disorder, disaster. Though the Lutherans are open to the Kingdom and the Spirit, there is yet so much religious mentality.

We leave Tanzania on next Wednesday for Berlin and the youth conference for three days.  Then we go to visit Freide's son and family. Kili "mini climb" is next Monday, rest Tuesday and leave Tanzania Wednesday for Berlin.

Great day!  High anointing, team was greatly used.  Wonderful people of Tanzania, a very live church today.  Holy Spirit makes a difference!

Blessings and thanks for prayers!

Jack & Friede