If You Can

“If You Can”


[Mark 9:22-24] “It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!” And Jesus said to him, ‘If you can? All things are possible to him who believes.’ Immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, ‘I do believe, help my unbelief.’


Unbelief is a sin and it has ravaged far too many disciples. When the world comes to our door step for ministry we are often powerless to help because we have grown up in an unbelieving generation. Oh how we need that to change right this very moment.
Will we as a church be like the disciples when a ministry opportunity presented itself before them and the Bible tells us they “could not do it.” What message does that send to this world when you and I cannot do the ministry people need because of our lack of faith? Jesus called that generation of disciples an “unbelieving generation.” That word means unfaithful, faithless, and disbelieving.
I see this same attitude prevailing in the hearts of God’s children all the time. We have intellectual faith but when faced with real life issues that require the miraculous intervention of God we are too often found spiritually bankrupt of the faith needed to help others and ourselves. As a result, many needs go unmet and many miracles never make it this side of Heaven because of the sin of unbelief. Why are our hearts so filled with doubt when God has proven over and over again that He can be trusted? He is just as faithful today as He has ever been. [I Thess 5:24]
The father who loved his son and wanted to see that boy delivered from the demon that sought to destroy him did the right thing. He brought the boy to the disciples in hopes that they could do the same miracles Jesus did. What he found was a group of spiritually impotent men who were without true faith of their own. When Jesus showed up the father turned to him for help but listen to what he says, “But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us!” Did you catch that? If you can do anything. I think that encapsulates the mind set of more of us than we could care to admit. We know God has the power to help in theory but we are not convinced or persuaded He will come through for us in our situation or empower us to minister to those who need nothing short of a miracle.
What kind of praying is “if you can do anything?” Do we really know who we are talking to? This same Jesus healed the leper in [Matt 8:1-3], healed Peter’s mother in law in [Matt 8:14-15], cast out demons in others in [Matt 8:16], cast out other demons in [Matt 8:28-34], and healed a paralytic in [Matt 9:2-8]. That is only about a chapter and a half of one of the gospels. John really says what we need to be reminded of best in [Jn 21:25] “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written.” We serve a faithful Christ who is able, more than able, to accomplish what concerns you and those around you today.
Jesus responded to the father by saying, “If you can? All things are possible to him who believes.” That’s it. If all things are possible to the one who believes then it also must be true that all things are impossible for the one who doubts and is faithless. There is plague of faithlessness and unbelief in the church today. We are quick to make excuses why this can’t happen and to explain away the need for miracles as we put our confidence in our own abilities. Does Jesus really mean ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE to the person who believes? The father in our story sure thought so because his prayer was for the Lord to help his unbelief. What ensued after that heartfelt prayer? A miracle!
Do you want to be a part of miraculous ministry or live in a day of miracle famine? Do you really believe all things are possible to the one who believes? Do you believe God can call a pastor to Humboldt, SAS? They have come to our feet for help and what we believe will determine in large part whether they see a miracle or if we can do nothing to help them. Do you believe God wants this church to grow through conversions? If you do, when the lost come asking spiritual questions will you have faith to share Christ and trust Him for their salvation no matter how nervous you are? Do you believe that God can make miracle provision for ministry expansion? Your answer could help usher in the most exciting days in the history of this church.
Our faith response to Christ must not be “if you can” but rather be “since you can, I believe.” I believe that we are about to see abounding miracles in souls saved, the kingdom advanced here in Paradise, in Humboldt, and around the world. I believe that having 200 in Sunday School is not only possible on a high attendance Sunday but will be reality on every given Sunday sooner than we think. I believe that we will pay cash for a new parsonage as well as any other additions this church will ever make. I believe that God set us in this community to help broken, desperate people who have no one else to turn to like we have seen in the aftermath of the fires that destroyed homes. They came for help and in partnership with Nehemiah’s Vision we will rebuild their homes. We will not be an unbelieving generation but a BELIEVING generation and we will pass on the legacy of faith to our children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren should the Lord tarry. I beg of you to believe with me for the greatest days in the life of this church. Oh God, please help our unbelief and deliver us from it forever.

Close Encounters

Close Encounters
A Guide to Intimacy with God



Introduction


Congratulations! Even having a desire to go deeper with God than you have ever been is evidence of His work within you to draw you closer [James 4:8] This devotional is the first step of many on an exciting and journey toward intimacy with God. This devotional was written with one purpose in mind; to help you cultivate a closer communion with the Father. Each day is meant to be one more step toward a lifetime journey to really know God. There will be times when you will be broken, humbled, awed, inspired, and overwhelmed by the presence of God in your life.

The purpose for Close Encounters is simple. It is just a tool to lead you through a multi-day adventure of passionate seeking and thirsting for God. It is my prayer that after you finish this devotional, your soul will forever crave more close encounters with our living God. Before you even begin this passionate pursuit, you must start the journey with an inner craving, a deep hunger, and unquenchable thirst for God more than any other person or thing in your life. I’m not referring to learning more head knowledge about God, but rather growing in intimacy to know the heart and mind of God. These devotions have been written out of the overflow of a prayerful heart of one who has made the intimate passionate pursuit of God my life’s chief ambition. Won’t you join me as we have close encounters with the creator of this universe? I would like to start this journey with a prayer and asking you to voice this prayer along with me.

You could just glance over the prayer and quickly move on to the next page, but I urge you to read the prayer slowly and meditate on it. Let the heartbeat of this prayer resonate and settle deep in your soul until it becomes part of your spiritual DNA not just for this day but for each day of this life long quest. Breathe in the fresh desire for more of God experientially and emotionally and exhale this desperate plea for more of God in your heart. I know if this is your prayerful attitude, you shall not be disappointed on this journey.












I’m Yours

A passionate hunger for You my Lord
Along with a deep thirsting for Your Word
May they capture and consume my heart
Until I’m Yours enslaved never to depart

I’m Yours to do with as you please
I ask for the cross – not comfort or ease
Send me where others refuse to go
So the lost your glory might know

On the altar I lay my heart and life
A holy and pleasing sacrifice
My desires are now counted as loss
As I wear the harness of the cross

More of You and Less of me
Use me Lord – my humble plea
Propel me where others have not gone
Until my life is nothing but your song

-Matt Edwards 3-20-01



















Day One
[Exodus 33:18-34:8]


Are you tired of going through the religion routine of doing a quiet time rather than having a personal encounter with God? If you are and you really desire a close encounter with the God of this universe, what better place can we start than right here praying the same prayer Moses prayed in [Ex 33:18]. “I pray You show me Your glory!”
That is one of the boldest prayers that has ever been uttered in faith by human lips. It takes guts to pray a prayer like that. In essence Moses was praying, “God I know I have seen in the burning bush, I have seen you bring miraculous plagues, I even saw you part the Red Sea, but none of that is enough for me. I want you. I want to see you in the fullness of your splendor and majesty. I want to catch a glimpse of your presence in all your radiant brilliance. I am not satisfied with anything less.”
Does that prayer resonate in your heart? Are you satisfied to see the things God does without ever really seeing Him? Are you satisfied to worship from afar distant and aloof not getting up close and personal with your creator? Do you even have the desire to grow closer and go deeper with God? That is where it all starts. We must desire more of God in order to cultivate intimacy with Him. He knows this very second whether you are merely going the repetitive routine of a devotion as opposed to desiring a close encounter.
Close Encounters is not about our hurrying through a pithy thought or an inspirational scripture each day. Intimacy with the Lord requires time and if we don’t have the time to sit before the Lord and linger with Him, most likely this time and devotional will not prove to be very beneficial. These devotions are nothing more than a gateway to gaining more heart knowledge of our Lord. We must determine that we will not just walk through the gate but journey up the sidewalk to the very throne room of God and sit at His feet. It is in the throne room that close encounters happen. These types of encounters require much effort but the reward of His presence and His voice is worth it.
As the old proverb says, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Take that first step in asking God to reveal more of Himself to you. Each day you will be given several steps to help you on this journey. It will be your responsibility and privilege to follow through with each of these steps and not proceed until you have fully encountered God with each previous step. As you can already see, Close Encounters is not the kind of devotion guide you will be able to complete in fifteen minutes.

Steps to Intimacy

1. Get yourself a journal. A spiral notebook or note pad will work fine. Write down your deepest longings for God as you personalize [Ex 33:18].
2. Read the entire passage and soak in God’s word allowing the Lord to speak to you. Record what the Lord says to you in your journal. Don’t rush on to the next step until you can clearly identify what He has to say to you.
3. Write your prayerful response to what the Lord has spoken. This may require repentance and confession, it may require making a fresh start with the Lord.
4. How will you practically apply what the Lord has spoken to your daily life? What plans of action do you need to take to ensure consistent obedience?
Day Two
[Jeremiah 29:13]


Read and digest today’s scripture. Drink of it deeply until it has soaked thoroughly into your soul. Don’t dare proceed any further until you have spent sufficient time meditating on this passage.
What is the purpose in your coming to sit before the Lord today? Is your purpose to fulfill a religious obligation or to meet with and hear from God in a close encounter? It is not just enough to come into His presence if your heart is hard and your spiritual ears are closed. We must come with the right motivations in our heart. If we come and do not intend to listen to what He has to say nor to adjust our lives accordingly, why should He bless us with His presence?
Have you ever been talking to someone and they do not listen because they are continually looking over your shoulder or all around to see who else is the room? They do not hear what you are saying because they are distracted and not focused on you. So it is with the Lord. If you come into His presence with the television on, music blaring, or with other people clamoring for your attention, chances are you will be distracted.
God not only wants but demands your undivided attention not only this day but each day of your life. What are you preoccupied with today as you come before the Lord? What is competing with God for your attention and affection? You cannot have a close encounter when your mind and heart are cluttered with other things. This time is sacred and is set apart for two things. First, we are passionately pursuing God and secondly, we are lingering with Him to hear Him speak.
How do you seek God? The word “seek” means to search out. You are literally setting this time aside search out God. How? You do this through prayer and private worship. Yes, you can sing and worship the Lord privately. You search out God by meditating on scripture and seeking to squeeze each verse like a sponge until it oozes with the juices of truth and more revelation of Him. You search out God by sitting quietly before Him and just listening.
Recently I was on a mini-prayer retreat in my favorite prayer cabin in East Texas. As I was seeking God early that morning the voice of the Lord impressed on my heart, “Listen to me for I have something I was to say to you.” My first thought was to keep reading scripture but I soon knew this was not what God had in mind. So I left my Bible and prayer journal, sat in an easy chair, tilted my head back and sighed a prayer asking the Lord to clear my mind and to listen. It was not easy at first. My mind kept trying to race but after awhile my mind was calmed and the Lord spoke some very important things to me. One of the biggest was He revealed whom He had chosen to be the next staff member of our church. It was a powerful and incredible experience and sure enough the Lord did call that man and his wife to come serve in our church.
If we do not come to search out God, we are likely to shut our Bibles and this devotion without having been blessed with the awareness of His presence or Hearing His distinct voice. The word “find” in this passage means to catch, attain, or meet. Is that the real desire of your heart today? Have you come to catch, attain, or meet God in this sacred moment? If this is your heart, your soul may be captivated by a glimpse of Him that will mesmerize and enthrall your soul. No one or no thing will ever be able to satisfy your soul like Him. If this is the passion of your soul today, I am confident you will not leave disappointed.

Steps to Intimacy:

1. List in your journal anything or anyone that is competing with your desire seek out and find God. Name them one by one. Will you put them behind your affection for God?
2. Write your heart’s desire to seek and find God.
3. Spend some time in private worship. Sit before the Lord and sing, meditate, praise, adore, and love God in this moment. Let deep and sincere praise flow from your lips and heart.




































Day Three
[Ps 24:6]


Before proceeding any further, let’s stop and ask the Lord to enlarge our desire for Him. Father, we yearn for you. We are not content to live this day apart from deep fellowship with you. We ask you to increase our hunger for you and to grant us mental and spiritual discipline to abide in your presence until we see you more clearly and hear from you loudly.
We must continue seeking Him. We must refuse the temptation to be satisfied with anything less in this time than His presence. The truth is we are seeking and searching for something in our lives. For some it might be a relationship, a profession, a promotion, a spouse, or something this world promises will bring you contentment and lasting happiness. We are seeking something, but is it God? Did we come to seek and find God in this moment? We are not going to settle for the cheap imitation of an emotional feel good quiet time experience void of the weighty presence of the Lord. May the Lord be the object of our deepest yearnings and strivings today.
Many people who say they seek the Lord really are only after His hands. Their seeking is more about what they can get from God rather than being satisfied with the treasure that is God Himself. Will you settle for His hands today are press in closer to seek His face?
What happens when you make the face of God your pursuit? Seeking someone’s face speaks to intimacy. When we seek the face of God, we will be able to hear what He has to say more clearly. [Jer 33:3] We will gain His hear in return as we lay our burdens and supplications before His throne of grace. [Heb 4:16] We will gaze upon Him to behold His beauty. [Ps 63:2] We will also be melted under the hot lava of His loving gaze and He utters heavenly secrets for our lives. [Ps 139:17] We will begin hearing the intimate thoughts of a loving Father who has our lives planned out. [Ps 139:16] We will be granted the opportunity see things the way God sees them and your gaze will be redirected to where He gazes. We will become much more familiar with the One who knows the number of hairs on our heads. [Luke 12:7]
We are challenged to make God’s face our chief pursuit today. We may not see a mental picture of His face and be able to make out His features but we will become engulfed in His presence and transformed in the process.

Steps to Intimacy:

1. What is God speaking to you as you seek His face? Record those things you sense the Lord speaking to you in your journal.
2. Confess any guilt if you have been content seeking God’s hand over seeking His face.
3. Ask the Lord to allow you see what He sees. Ask the Lord for His vision for your life.
4. Sit still and listen today. Receive His expression of love for you today.




Day Four
[Gen 32:24-30]


As we continue on our journey past casual acquaintance of God, a question is posed today. Do you want God’s blessing on your life? This question will rise to the surface as you read and meditate on our scriptures for today. We must ask ourselves what price Jacob had to pay in order to receive God’s blessing.
We know from reading the scriptures that he spent an agonizing night wrestling with the angel of the Lord. When was the last time you were awakened in the middle of night to spend time wrestling with God in prayer? Did you get up and pray or did you roll over and try to go back to sleep? Jacob wrestled with the angel of the Lord hour after hour until the darkness turned into the morning dawn, but he would not throw in the towel. He strove and struggled for position all through the night and refused to loosen his grip until he received God’s blessing. Do you want God’s blessing enough to forsake sleep in the midnight hours of soul wrestling?
Do we really want God’s blessing? Let us consider two things. First, God gives whatever blessings He chooses to. Every blessing from the Lord does not bring prosperity, success, or ease of life. Many of God’s greatest blessings are wrapped in the form of trials, struggles, sufferings, and painful nights of weeping that must be endured before the joy of the morning dawns with new hope and revelation of God’s blessing. The greatest blessing we can be given today is the gift of His presence and Himself present in any and every circumstance of our lives. Secondly, God’s blessing did not come without brokenness and life transformation. His real blessing is life transformation. After Jacob’s wrestling, he was never the same. He limped for the rest of his life but his character was also transformed in the process. Maybe you are finding yourself in the vice-like grip of God and the pressure hurts but if you endure, you will be transformed and more equipped to be His vessel.
Why are we so quick to forsake the struggle, the wrestling, and striving with the Lord? It requires great effort. It is easier to resign ourselves to live without His blessing and in a land and churches plagued with a miracle famine. What if the Lord was withholding blessings for our families and churches beyond our wildest imaginations in exchange for our nights of wrestling and tenacious grip? Would we not be motivated to strive for position with the Lord and endure the brokenness that comes from such encounters?
Will we be tenacious with God today and refuse to let Him go until He blesses us in whatever way He sees fit? We have been warmed that often His blessings do not come without our having to be broken and molded for the purposes of God. God’s breaking is not to hurt us as much as it is rebuild, remold, and reshape our marred form into vessels of honor.
We close with the question we posed in the very beginning. Do we really want God’s blessing like Jacob wanted it? Are we determined to wrestle with the Lord until we prevail in His grace. He longs to bless us more than we long to be blessed.

Steps to Intimacy:
1. What does the Lord need to break in you today? Conform and do not rebel.
2. Do you want His blessing and presence? Will you wrestle for it as long as it takes?
Day Five
[Hosea 12:4-5]

As our journey continues, we once again turn to Jacob’s wrestling experience with the angel of the Lord. As you read the scriptures, hang around verse four a little longer. There are five action words in that verse that will give us insight into Jacob’s encounter with the Lord.
First, he wrestled, contended and struggled. What are you wrestling with God over today? By faith wrestle in prayer until you prevail by either gaining a peace in your heart or by seeing a change in your circumstances. Remember that a key to successful wrestling in prayer is found in [I John 5:14-15]. Gain fortitude of soul and pray with a tenacious attitude until the answer is secured.
Second, Jacob prevailed. He gained the victory with the Lord and received God’s blessing. Are you prevailing in prayer? The late prayer giant E.M. Bounds once commented that most people give up in prayer at the very point where they should be just getting started. He went on to say that because people are not willing to prevail in prayer, all the oceans of the world could not contain all the unanswered prayers because people simply gave up and quit believing. Prevail.
Third, Jacob wept. Have you mixed tears with your prayer burdens and supplications? Tears move God to action. [Ps 126:5] [Ps 56:8] [II Kings 20:1-6] There is little brokenness in much of our praying but tears and faith are the breeding grounds for miracles and God’s blessing.
Fourth, Jacob sought the favor of God. Do you that? Are you seeking God’s favor with your family, community, work, church?
Last, Jacob found God. As he sought, wept, prevailed and wrestled, Jacob found the presence of God and received God’s blessing. He was determined and I pray that would be our attitude in coming to the Father today. May we be determined to find and become aware of the presence of the Lord.

Steps to Intimacy:

1. Continue to wrestle with the Lord in prayer until you prevail with a sense of peace that the answer will come or you see the answer come in due season.
2. What has broken your heart lately? List these things in your journal and allow the Lord to break your heart over the things that His heart breaks for. Do not be afraid of tears.
3. As the Lord puts His favor on your life, what ministry is He revealing to you? Where are you to be investing your time and talents? Ask the Lord to show you favor with those people and in that ministry.









Day Six
[Hosea 11:7]


As we are nearing the end of this first week of this journey toward intimacy with God, the time has come to do some spiritual house cleaning. We have spent most of our time this past week learning how to desire to seek God. God creates this desire in us for Him. If left up to our own desires, we would never pursue or desire God. [Ps 14:2-3]
Even as a child of God in pursuit of intimacy with Him, it is possible for your affections and desires to stray. Our enemy will seek to distract us and lure us away from this passionate pursuit of knowing the Father. We are easily tempted by old behaviors and thought patterns which can resurface. Are you bent on turning from God today?
Even as we enter His presence, are there any areas in our lives not completely yielded and surrendered? We cannot desire to gratify the desires of the flesh and satisfy our desire for more of God at the same time. Which ever desire is greater will most likely win the day. Today would be good day for us slowly walk the corridors of our hearts with a spiritual broom and sweep the cobwebs and dirt that have collected there. We must sweep out any thought, desire, seed of rebellion, or attitude that does not submit to nor honor God. We must especially go into those secret chambers of our souls where cherished secret sins lie hidden behind locked and closed doors. Today is a day of cleansing.
Intimacy bears the fruit of wanting to see others drawn to God for salvation and intimacy. If we have rebellion and wickedness buried beneath the surfaces of our hearts, others will see right through our empty words and artificial actions. They will see our hypocrisy before they will be able to see our wonderful Savior who can save and transform them.
Are there any places in our hearts where we are beginning to bend in the wrong direction away from God? There will be constant temptations to shelve this devotional because of the time demands and life adjustments. At this point, you may be discovering God is doing a major makeover in your heart. It would not be uncommon to begin thinking how much easier it was to go back to life as it was before, but to do so would mean you would be missing out on really getting to know God and discovering His purposes for you. If you are battling these thoughts, I urge you to repent and set your gaze back on the Lord. Behold Him and allow Him to capture and consume your heart once again. He alone can satisfy the deepest longings of your soul.

Steps to Intimacy:

1. Start a detailed list of confession in each area of your life you have begun to bend from the Lord.
2. Take the necessary time to confess each sin independently.
3. Use Psalm 51 as prayer guide to aid you in this personal time of repentance. Write your prayer for restoration in your journal.





Day Seven
[Hosea 10:12]


We have spent the vast part of this first week dealing with the issue of seeking God and desiring Him. Today as we come before Him once again, our focus is to allow Him to plow up the hard packed ground of our hearts with His word and His presence. Just like the land grows hard from the intense heat from the sun pounding day after day, so can our hearts become hardened by the constant pressure from the world seeking to squeeze and mold us. This can result in our becoming desensitized to the voice and presence of God in our vain pursuits of empty buckets which can never hold what our thirsting hearts long for.
Yesterday, we spent the day asking God to clean every crevice of our hearts of anything that does not honor Him. Though painful, that was a good step in the right direction, but today we must go one step further. We must allow Him to rip into the sin packed soil of our souls in order to turn it over so when He sows the seed of His word into us, the seed will fall on fertile ground, take root, and bear much fruit in the days and years ahead.
Are you hardened to God’s presence and voice? Are you fertile ground for God’s word? When we begin to ignore the voice of the Lord and defiantly refuse to submit to His leadership, our hearts grow harder and harder. Our hears become duller and duller unable to distinguish His voice from the maddening chaos of this age.
With the plow of the Holy Spirit who convicts of sin and reveals truth, having your fallow ground broken up is not a pleasant experience. It is vitally important though. If you ever hope to grow in intimacy with God, you must have a soft and fertile heart.
As you sit before the Lord today, the time has come to allow the steel of His word cut through the layers of firm soil that have built up over the years. Yet as the hard is turned over a soft fertile layer rises to the surface eager for fresh seed to fall. Can you identify any area in your life where your hearts has grown hard and you have refused to obey Him? Allow the Lord to turn each of these areas over until you are fertile ground once again. This is time for you sit in His presence and linger as you allow Him to work on you and plow you.
Begin pondering these questions:
• Is there any area in your life where you are not completely submitted to God?
• Do you have any broken relationships that need to be reconciled?
• Have you really given God your best effort during the past seven days?
• Is there any other area of your life God is speaking to you about?
As God comes over you, remain with Him until He rains righteousness upon you and drenches you with His refreshing presence. Allow Him the time needed to soften your heart and bring under the submission of His leadership. Don’t put this off. Now, this moment, in this very sacred hour is the time to seek the Lord and allow Him to break your fallow ground.

Steps to Intimacy:
1. Journal your responses to the above questions in your journal.
2. Is there anything the Lord desires to remove from your life?
3. Is there anything the Lord desires to add to your life?
4. How has this previous week of close encounters changed you?
Day Eight
[Zephaniah 3:17]


In today’s close encounter, we are going to meditate on the extravagant and lavish love of God for His children. As you read this passage, do so slowly seeking to savor each juicy truth. Making the statement, “God loves you,” hardly even registers on the radar of our hearts and minds. We have become callused to this truth. You read a statement like that and fly right past it not even giving it a second thought. How I pray this verse would be a wake up call if you find yourself in that position.
It would be easy to feel guilty over known sin and condemned which would lead to dread of coming into God’s presence after the last two day’s devotions. During much of last week, God took the hammer and chisel and took chunks off to refine. It was often uncomfortable and extremely painful. Each of us experienced the deep and painfully convicting work of the Holy Spirit as sin was revealed in our behavior, thoughts, and attitudes. That is why we must combat feelings of defeat with a fresh look at the manifold love of God. I pray this verse will be catalyst to open your heart to that love in fresh ways.
Here is the truth. Regardless of your behavior, God cannot possibly love you anymore than He does at this moment. Next truth. There is nothing you can do to make God love you any more or any less. Ponder that for a moment. Think about your greatest morale blunder and there was God still loving you perfectly. He was not pleased in that moment but His love did not waiver for you even for a millisecond. Words are inadequate to express His love for you so He tangibly proved it and gave you symbol to remind you of it continually. It took a cross to fully express God’s love for you through the death of Jesus. The very thought of you brings joy and gladness to God’s heart. Read that sentence again. The very thought of YOU brings joy and gladness to God’s heart. Yes, you! It was God who created you with great detail and your name and countless thoughts about you bless His heart because you are His child (if you have received Christ as your Savior). You did not earn and you do not deserve this love, it is freely bestowed on you by the Sovereign choice of God.
The word “rejoice” in this passage means to spin around wildly and delight with extreme gladness. As His child, your efforts in seeking Him these past days has caused much rejoicing in the heart of God much like a parent watching their child play a ball game and make a great play. There are times He contain the joy any longer and His excitement for you lead to His shouts of joy and rejoicing, again for YOU! This may be far too difficult for you to digest. It is for many. We would rather sulk in the corner imagining God as a harsh task master as opposed to a loving, forgiving, merciful, and yet uncompromising God.
You may feel like you can measure up and you would be right. That’s why we need the blood of Jesus to cleanse us and His righteousness to cover us. You have ever known love until you have been clothed in the love of God. He loves you when you blow it and can gently restore and bandage the wounds, He can encourage when you fail and rejoice when you succeed. His love is deeper than the deepest ocean, wider than the widest desert, and higher than the highest mountain. As a loving Father, He is tender and kind. Abide a little longer than usual and allow His abundant, lavish, overflowing, extravagant, unconditional, inconceivable love to flow over you like a waterfall until you melt beneath the cascade of it. May wave after wave of His never ending, unmerited, and unfathomable love overwhelm you bringing you to your knees in humility and tears.

Steps to Intimacy:

1. Climb into your Heavenly Father’s lap and sit for awhile. Let Him wrap you in the mantle of His love. Bury your head into His massive chest and let His warmth and security bring comfort to you.
2. Know you can never do anything to earn or deserve such love. (This may be a time where you need to experience His forgiveness and restoration.)
3. Journal your thoughts about YOU bringing joy and delight to the heart of the Father. How does that make you feel?
4. Ask Him to affirm His love for you in this time.
5. You may be experiencing shame and guilt. Let Him build you up in and affirm you in this time. Write down what you sense the Lord speaking to you today.



























Day Nine
[I Cor 1:9]


God is faithful. It is His nature. He has never been and cannot help but forever be faithful. Ponder that statement. Concentrate on every single word of it. Jehovah, our rock, our provider, our redeemer, Father, deliverer, the Great I Am, is faithful. There has never been a moment in history from the foundations of the world when God was not nor when He was not faithful. He is absolutely trustworthy. His word and His promises are just as true today as they were when they fell from His loving lips the first time. HE IS FAITHFUL.
There might be times in our lives when it would appear God is not faithful. Just travel down to the hospital like I did yesterday. Hundreds of sick children, some terminally sick. Wander into a funeral home. Confusion reigns and many doubt God’s faithfulness behind ominous clouds of darkness of grief. Confidently I state again, there has never been a moment in time when God has not been faithful. Even in sorrow and grief God is faithful in His comfort, His grief, His promise of everlasting life for the saved. God is faithful daily in the forgiveness of our sins, the salvation of souls, the deliverance of those bound in chains of darkness. He is faithful to hear and answer prayer. He is faithful to provide our needs. He is faithful to keep His promises. He is faithful in your life and mine.
Is there an area of life where you feel God has not been faithful to you? Do you feel God has abandoned you and let you down in a time of need? He promised that He would never forsake us ever in [Joshua 1:5]. Either that is truth or a fanciful statement of our imagination. It can’t be both. Either God is really faithful or this is all just the stuff of fairy tales. I am not asking if this statement is true just for you but is God really faithful for every person breathing on planet earth and those who went before us and for those who will come after us? Is our God faithful at all times and in any and every season of life? Yes!!! He can be trusted and counted on.
You can read of His faithfulness in [Ex 14-17]. He is faithful in the pages of [I Kings 17-18] as well as in [Daniel 3-6]. He is faithful on the cross in [Matthew 27] and still so leaving an empty tomb in [Matthew 28]. His faithfulness continues to group of scattered disciples in [Acts 2] and He will be faithful in His second coming and through all of eternity. Like I said earlier, faithfulness is His nature.
The question today is not whether you believe that, because your belief or unbelief that does not change the trustworthiness of God one iota. As you journal today, use the time to trace the faithfulness of God in your own life. Look back and at the present and watch how the Lord has been there for you in the difficult times. This will help you gain confidence to trust Him for today and in the future no matter what you are up against.

Steps to Intimacy:

1. Find a concordance and look at several verses relating to God’s faithfulness. Memorize one or two of them like [Ps 50:15]
2. Confess doubt you might be harboring in your present circumstances.
3. Pray for renewed faith to trust God regardless of your circumstances.

Day Ten
[John 5:1-7]


As you read and meditate on today’s scriptures, envision yourself as being the one sheep whom has gone astray. We focused on the love of God earlier this week but today we will zero in God being redeemer. What does the word redeem mean? Here are two different meanings. “(1)To regain possession of by repurchase, payment of an amount due as on a pledge. (2) To rescue or deliver, as from bondage, by paying a ransom.”
It is a humbling thing to be redeemed, to be in a helpless estate and have to depend on someone else to rescue you by paying your ransom, which is exactly what Jesus did for your sin and mine on the cross. Contemplate that for a moment. We did not do one single thing to deserve, earn, or be credited with redemption. We did not even seek redemption on our own initiative. It was God who convicted our hearts and God who drew us and appointed us for salvation. [John 6:44, 65] He opened our eyes to the hope of the gospel and pursued us before we even thought about pursuing Him. He drew us to repentance of sin and to embrace grace which brought redemption. Incredible.
Do not miss this point. God has many children or sheep in His fold. More numerous than we would care to count. Isn’t it humbling and amazing that God is willing to leave the ninety-nine sheep who are safe to pursue the one who has strayed. God knew before you were ever saved that you were missing from the fold and He went after you. Maybe it was through a parent, grandparent, preacher or youth minister. However He did it, He went after you. He did not rest with the fold He had but wanted you to be in that number. Who lead you to Christ? How many people prayed for you to be saved before you were ever redeemed?
Three people prayed for me. My great uncle who was a Nazarene preacher. My great aunt who attended a Methodist church. My wife began praying for me when she was in eighth grade. I know God heard those prayers and I was redeemed as a result.
Were you raised in a Christian home? How often did you think about God and eternity before you were redeemed? How many times did you reject the gospel before receiving Christ for salvation? Just think if God would have given up on you in frustration. The shepherd sought for His sheep until he found it and God continued to go after you until were back in His care and possession. Jesus was relentless in His redeeming you and continues to be relentless in His redemption of people all over the world.
Can you even imagine the joy that takes place in Heaven over each sinner who repents of sin and is glorious redeemed by Jesus? We are told there is more rejoicing over individuals being saved and redeemed than over all those who gather in holy huddles. That doesn’t mean God doesn’t love the sheep already in the fold. It just means that He also loves though who have lost their way. Thank God for His relentless pursuit of you and your redemption.

Steps to Intimacy:
1. Journal your thoughts about Jesus pursuing and redeeming you.
2. What is God’s desire in sending you to help rescue lost sheep?
3. Pray for a heart like Christ to love and relentlessly pursue wandering sheep.
Day Eleven
[II Cor 5:21]


God, in His perfect love for us, took His perfect Son who had never sinned and made Him sin on our behalf. Try and wrap your mind around that thought. Perfection became imperfection. Purity became impurity. Light took on the darkness. Jesus took the death sentence on the cross each of us deserved while we were given and promised life everlasting which we could never deserve. The list of our iniquities is long and distinguished. Stop for a moment and list your known sins. Be specific about those sins. Ponder the shame of those choices and behaviors. Now, picture all that filth being cast on Christ while He was on the cross. Go one step further and envision His cleanness and right standing with God being imputed into our lives. Why would Jesus do this?
Two reasons come to mind and both need to be contemplated long and hard. First, He was motivated by love, a perfect love unlike what you and I had ever experienced until we were redeemed. How could an all knowing God love us that much, especially when you think about our half hearted commitments, our inconsistent follow through and continual acts of defiance and rebellion. Still God loved us enough to put Jesus on the cross. How does this love make you feel? Journal those thoughts. Second, it was Christ’s death that made us righteous before God. Apart from Jesus’ sacrifice there would not have been redemption which means there would never have been a desire to know God, a path to relate with Him, and no close encounters.
God does look upon your deeds to validate your acceptance into His kingdom. Your merit is based solely on what Jesus did on the cross. That’s why Paul said he had no room to boast in anything but the cross. [Gal 6:14] It is the blood of Christ that has robed every child of God in a cloak of righteousness. It is humbling to know we did not do one single thing in this whole process but trust and embrace and even God helped us with those. It was simply God’s desire to redeem you and make through acceptable through the costly death of His Son.

Steps to Intimacy:

1. Journal a song or poem that sums of the truth in [II Cor 5:21]. Find one that already been written or make up your own. Sing it from a fresh heart today.
2. Journal your thoughts on the freedom of knowing you stand righteous before God because of the redemptive work of Christ.
3. Express your heart to Christ for becoming sin on your behalf and taking your punishment on the cross. (This might be a good time to take the Lord’s Supper in the privacy of this devotion.)
4. Journal your grateful heart for such a grand act of love.






Day Twelve
[Ps 106:2]


Our God is without equal in deed or power. It would take you all of eternity to try and list all His attributes, to recount His mighty acts in your own life alone much less in the lives of those who have walked with the Lord. How many times has God’s unseen hand protected us from harm, disease, and tragedy without our having ever even becoming aware we were in danger? How many times has God provided without our ever even having asked? Can you even number the times He has healed, brought comfort, given supernatural strength, or peace. I could go on but I think you can the Psalmist’s point.
What have you given to the Lord in response to all He has given you? We are not talking about trying to pay God back. That is impossible. We are talking about giving God thanks and giving God our best in response to His lavish love poured out on us in numerous ways. Let’s offering a HUGE praise to God in our journals today. Don’t hold back. Let praise pour forth like lava erupting from a volcano. Sing! Shout! Weep! Thank! Rejoice! Celebrate! Praise God as intensely as you can. After you are spent emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually, and fall into an exhausted heap, God is worthy still more. If you list every act of God in your life you can possibly remember and you have them all listed in volumes of books, He has still done more and will do more in the future.
How can we wrap our finite minds and hearts around an infinite God? We must ask God for greater revelations and for greater capacities to experience them. There will always be more of God to know. You will never fully plunge His depths or climb His summit. We can only ask for more and pursue a little harder. Summon a little more strength and praise a little harder, longer, and louder. He is worthy of it.

Steps to Intimacy:

1. Take some time to sit before the Lord and dwell on His greatness and our smallness.
2. How often do you sing your praises instead of His? How often do you make yourself or someone else other than God the center of your universe?
3. Breathe in the vastness of God and excel praises.
4. Confess your attempts to downsize God so He fits into your convenient theology and lifestyle.
5. Where do you fit in God’s grand scheme of the universe?










Day Thirteen
[Ps 139:16]



Before you ever took your first breath, God knew you. I do not mean He was merely acquainted with you. I mean He KNEW you. He knew the color of your hair and eyes, the type personality you would have, what talents you would have, what things you would excel at and struggle with, what friends you would have, who you would marry, what vocation you would have, where you would live, when you would die. I mean God KNEW you before you were ever born. He knew all of this before you were ever even in conceived in your mother’s womb. God KNEW you before there ever was a you.
He continues to know you. He knows your thoughts right this very second. He knew the exact moment you would awake today and when you fall asleep tonight. He knows the burdens you carry and the dreams you cherish in your heart. He has never been nor will ever be taken by surprise concerning any event on any given day of your life. He knows you. He knows what makes you laugh and what causes you to weep. He knows the hidden scars you have hidden from everyone but Him. Nothing escapes His notice.
He knows every trial you will face on your earthly pilgrimage. He knows when your faith will soar and when it will sink in the depths of despair. He knows these days of your life when you experience in expressible joy along with the days when your heart will fill like it has been ripped and torn into pieces by the cruelty of life.
How does all of this make you feel? If possible, read all of [Psalm 139]. Allow the truth of this great Psalm to infiltrate your heart to nourish, comfort, add peace, joy, and security as needed.

Steps to Intimacy:

1. What is your response to the truth that God knew you before you were born?
2. How does being known by God impact you?
3. If you have questions about your life – this might be a good time to ask them and to listen for answers.
4. Ask the Lord to reveal His will concerning things you might be confused about.













Day Fourteen
[Psalm 40:5]


Many are the thoughts of God toward us, too numerous to count. The word “thoughts” in the Hebrew language has a wide variety of meanings. It might mean plans, intentions, imagination, or purpose. God’s thoughts translate into God’s purposes. He has a plan for where we will serve Him in the context of a community and local church. He has thoughts about what ministry or ministries we need to be involved in. His thoughts include our families, vocations, use of time and money. God has wonderful imagination about how to take our unique make up of personality, gifts, talents, and passions and use them all to expand His kingdom. Yet, often we rebel against His directions leaving us unfulfilled and frustrated and many needs left unmet in God’s agenda.
God’s purposes for your life and mine are wonderful. You were created with purpose, though many people miss this fact and squander their whole lives searching for meaning in possessions and people who can never give them what they long for. God’s thoughts and purposes are too numerous to count. If you multiply that truth by all the people who are His children around the world in foreign countries this truth is mind boggling. Each person in God’s family receives thoughts in the mind of God too numerous too count. How great and vast is the mind and heart of God to know each one by name and to think of them countless times in any given day. We are always on God’s mind. He never loses track of us for even a second. Even while I write this God is thinking of me at the same time He is thinking of my brothers in Christ hundreds of miles away from where I am sitting in this church office.
Contained in some of these thoughts are His love for us, excitement over our progress in relating to Him, thoughts of concerns for unwise decisions we make from time to time, thoughts of protection as we slumber through the night vulnerable, and thoughts to unfold directions for us on any given day. It is humbling to contemplate the truth that while I am sitting down at this computer pecking away at this keyboard pondering God, He sits on His throne pondering me and you who will one day be reading this. What are His thoughts concerning you at this moment? Is He pleased, honored, rejoicing, or are His thoughts more saddened, grieved, angry, and displeased with you? Let Him reveal the answer to us.

Steps to Intimacy:

1. Sit with God for a season as He reveals His thoughts concerning you. This will require you to do more listening than talking today. Be sure and capture His thoughts in your journal.
2. As you meditate on God thinking of people all over the world, what are some things He reveals to you about His people in other nations? What are their needs and is there anyway you can help to meet those needs?
3. Try and live this day with your mind on God as much as possible. Remove all mental clutter that would hinder you from doing this. Be sensitive to things He may want to reveal to you along the way.


Day Fifteen
[Mark 16:15]


We spent a great deal of time looking at several different aspects of God’s love last week. We are going to expand on His love, not just for you and for people like you, but for people all over the world in every country, among every kindred, tribe, and people group even in the remotest parts of this globe. This thinking will be contrary to most Christian’s thought processes in the United States. Far too many of us are oblivious to the passionate heartbeat of God for people in other nations. It is the grand vision of God to expand the gospel message throughout the whole world.
Who is going to take that message to places like China, Poland, Sudan, Korea, and so forth? You and me and people just like us everywhere. How can God use us to advance His kingdom globally? First, we can pray for missions advancement and for missionaries to be called and raised to meet the needs of the world. Second, you can volunteer to go on short term mission trips around the world and across the United States. There are numerous options to go on 7-14 day trips. Start by asking the Lord if He desires you to take such a trip. It might not be so important to know where He wants you to as it is to know if He is calling you to go somewhere at this point. Third, you can give money to missions offerings or to help support others who are going on missions trips. This is a great kingdom investment. Fourth, you can allow the Lord to use you to mentor and train future missionaries through Bible studies and one on one investing into the lives of others. Last, you can be available and sensitive to the call of God on your life to surrender to full time missions.

Steps to Intimacy:

1. Prayerfully go through the above options about how you can personally be involved in missions and ask the Lord where He wants you.
2. Find a globe or map and put it in a place where you will be continually reminded of God’s heart for all people everywhere.
3. Communicate your availability and willingness to serve God where needed.
4. Pray through [Is 6:8]















Day Sixteen
[John 15:5]


Is your life bearing fruit for the glory of God? Most of us fall into the treacherous trap of trying to do things for God rather than letting God do things through us. Did you catch the difference? The first way we are exerting all the effort and in the latter God is the one producing the fruit as we surrender. As we have journeyed together these past couple of weeks you may find a new desire welling up in you to do more for God. That desire proves inconsistent as you struggle for motivation to follow through and falter in your frail strength to accomplish all that is in your heart. Your close encounter could very well prove to be revolutionary if you seek God diligently.
The secret to fruit bearing is not trying harder but surrendering more. We must learn the secret of hiding in Christ and abiding in Christ. This is easier splashed on the pages of this book than on the pages of our hearts. To abide in Christ means to remain in Christ all day long day after day. One saint referred to the act of abiding in Christ as learning to live the “exchanged the life”. Your life is exchanged for the life of Christ lived through you. You exchange your love for His love, your strength for His strength, your power for His power. You surrender so Christ can love, minister, and work through you. All day long you remain hidden in Christ and are contented to dwell in that position.
How much of your service for Christ is being done through the exchanged life and how much is being done through your own efforts and energies? Nothing you do in your own ability will last and count in eternity. None of it.
Are you getting tired and burned out? Is your strength and passion for the work of God waning? These are sure signs you are laboring in your own efforts and not with the exchanged life.
Before you can learn the truth of abiding in Christ or the exchanged life, you must first be willing to admit you cannot the job done in your own power. Jesus says in this passage that we can do NOTHING apart from Him. As you journal today, focus on the two central truths of living the exchanged life and that nothing we do in our own strength ability has any eternal value. How much of what you are currently doing is spiritually bankrupt because it is not being done aiding in Christ? Search through the archives of your mind and begin allowing the Lord to reveal those things to you.
Now, ask the Lord to show you how to abide in Him throughout the remainder of this day and how to exchange your life for His life lived through you. His promise to you and me is that we will bear much fruit if we stay hidden in Him and live the exchanged life. Do you really want to get to this place? Ask the Lord for it and believe Him for it.

Steps to Intimacy:

1. Part of abiding means remaining. Seek to remain in communion with Jesus through out the course of this day no matter where you go or what you do.
2. Journal your thoughts and impressions on abiding in Christ at the end of this day and determine to live the exchanged life tomorrow.
3. Work to surrender in living the exchanged life day in and day out.



Day Seventeen
[John 15:7-8]


We are continuing to look at another facet of the exchanged life today and how that life affects our prayers and those prayers affect our world. Squeeze God’s word for every drop of truth as you would the last drop of water on a hot summer day.
God’s ultimate purpose in this world is to bring greater glory to His name. God loves to make much of God and not of us or our ministries. He is passionate for the glory and fame of His name. Therefore He is passionate about you and I bearing much fruit through prayer and ministry so much will be made of His name. If we do not bear much fruit, God does not get the glory He deserves. All of us have fallen short in this area on more than one occasion. To put it simply, if we are not producing spiritual fruit, we are not living the exchanged life and therefore our labors are in vain. Do we really want the glory for ourselves? Do we want people to see working by the sweat of our brow, solving problems with the brilliance of our intellect, and putting in long hours until the job is completed but not producing one ounce of genuine spiritual fruit. God gets no glory when all the attention is on us and our efforts.
Just by the fact that we pray is acknowledgement that we need God and are dependent upon Him for spiritual breakthrough. The fact that we are surrendering to God in prayer and praying for Him to bear fruit gives testimony that we are His disciples and that His power is working through us. God does not need proof who His true children are but the world does. The world has been deceived and tricked by hucksters who ministered for personal gain and financial profit. Do you want God to get the glory and when people see you at work, do they see you at work or Christ in you? Depending on who is doing the work, will determine who gets the glory. I want to emphasize what Christ is saying to us. If you are doing the work, you are not producing spiritual fruit. You may show some products of your efforts but they will not be spiritual in nature and they will not last or be recognized in eternity at the judgment seat of Christ. [I Cor 3:10-15]
By God’s fruit produced through a prayerful exchanged life, He is exalted and glorified. When a lost world sees this they are drawn to Christ like a moth drawn to the flame. If all they ever see is us working hard they will forever be bored and repelled from Christ and the church. How we must get this truth in our hearts. We must live prayerful exchanged lives which produce an abundance of fruit and which draw a watching world to glorify our God and be drawn to Him for salvation.
We are challenged today to take inventory of our lives. Are we bearing fruit? Are our lives bringing glory and honor to God? Do people see our ministries and identify the power and anointing of God at work through us? Living the exchange life is the hinge on which so much of the kingdom of God hangs.

Steps to Intimacy:

1. What is God showing you about the exchanged life?
2. As you tried to remain hidden in Christ yesterday, did you bear fruit?
3. Is your motivation really to bring glory to God through your service to Him?
4. Find a trusted mentor whom you see bearing fruit in their lives. See if they will pray with you and teach you about the exchanged or hidden life.
Day Eighteen
[John 6:35]


By now, you should be acquiring a new spiritual appetite for more of God and discovering that He alone can satisfy the deepest cravings of your soul. Are you more hungry and thirsty for God than you have ever been? There is a physical hunger and thirst, but those can never bring lasting satisfaction. You will always have to eat food again or drink again to sustain life. Is there a yearning in you to feast at the table of God’s presence and to drink deeply of Him? You must come to the place of understanding where nothing in this world can ever satisfy your soul like Jesus. [Ps 73:25] We are far too easily amused and satisfied with the lesser blessings and cheaper thrills of this passing age.
Religion will never suffice. Our yearning must be for more of God and not just attending more church services or meetings. Church is good but a poor substitute for actually craving God Himself. You can attend a worship service and miss God totally as you become distracted by musical talent and preaching oratory. You can fall into the trap of rushing through devotion times and not allowing God to be your chief pursuit in exchange for a little more truth treasured in your mind but not infused in your heart. You can take each of these and make God your chief pursuit, the ultimate object of your longings and affection and your life will be transformed in the process. Do you see the difference? You can settle for less or feast on the bountiful blessing that is God.
As you remain in His presence today and soak in Him and savor Him, you will be fulfilled. As you gaze on His beauty, so many of the trappings of this world will lose their glitter and sparkle in your eyes. They will lose much of their appeal and attraction. Your thoughts will not be concerned with the things of this world as much as for the things of God and the weightier matters of eternity. You will learn the secret Paul mastered in [Phil 4:11] when he said he was content in all circumstances. Keep in mind he wrote those words in a prison cell.
We must learn this lesson well. Jesus alone satisfies. Many people will turn the world upside down searching for something, anything that will fill the void in their life. They try relationships, alcohol, drugs, new age religions, self enlightenment, sexual escapades only to come up empty every time. Jesus is what we need and what we are longing for. He alone can meet what we covet so much. Will you take time today to savor Christ and allow Him to nourish our sin starved souls? I know the world screams for our attention and much of what they are peddling appeals to the flesh but it is deception. Do not be hoodwinked. Stay the course and value Jesus Christ.

Steps to Intimacy:

1. Identify the deepest cravings of your soul and list them in your journal.
2. Where does God fall on that list? (I pray He be number one)
3. Do you after all this time still desire more intimacy with God? Why or why not?
4. Journal any thoughts you have concerning how Jesus has satisfied you.




Day Nineteen
[Ps 42:1-2]


Is there a panting in your soul to meet with God today? If not, stop what you are doing and ask the Lord to create that panting in you so this is not time wasted. The picture the Psalmist paints for us is one of not just a deer stopping for a leisure drink, but rather of one yearning aching for a drink in the midst of a drought. There is desperation involved, life and death motivation to do whatever it takes to get to water. Few of us have ever approached God with that kind of intensity and yet the Psalmist is saying that is exactly how he approaches God. His appetite was for God. His thirsting was for God. His passion was for God. His desire was for God.
What was your attitude in coming today? Did you come with intensity and determined to meet with God or did you leisurely stroll into this time and flippantly read these scriptures with little to no expectation. Developing an intimate relationship with God requires a life long effort. It is very time consuming and requires great discipline and devotion. Salvation is a precious gift from the Lord but to be like God and to know God is a pursuit. It means getting up day in and day out, decade in and decade out and to get refocused and to choose to run hard after God like a sprinter toward the finish line in the Olympic games. This will not take place in a casual saunter through the pages of scripture. If you came into the presence of the living God with no real expectation to meet with Him, why did you come at all? He wants to meet with you more than you want to meet with Him.
Our expectation must be renewed day by day for fresh and close encounters with the Great I Am. We have to be reminded He longs to transform our lives daily. He desires to do this if we will stay with Him long enough and to seek to rush off to the next item to do on our list. God is our list. Nothing supersedes Him. Day by day, God sands here, chisels there, polishes this, and molds that like a sculpture creating a masterpiece. The purpose of the sculpture’s existence is not to bring glory to itself but to the creator. This is the heart of God for His children. He wants the world to look at your life and mine and utter, “Only a great God could have created that or done that through them.” Did you come to have a close encounter with the Lord today? He desires a level of communion with you beyond anything you have ever fathomed.

Steps to Intimacy:

1. Confess any sin in your life?
2. Confess the lack of expectation to meet with the living God today?
3. Seek to draw as close to God as you possibly can during this time?
4. Ask God how He wants to change your life today.








Day Twenty
[James 4:7-8]


As you meditate on these verses, please take special notice of the word “submit” in verse seven. The word “submit” means to get in the proper rank. Often we are striving to outrank God by barking our orders to Him through prayer and expressing our opinion on how He should run our affairs. This is just the opposite of coming before Him in humility and submitting ourselves to His leadership and will. In order to this, it will require a total surrendering and yielding to Him even when do not understand what He is doing and it seems He has abandoned us. Still, we must surrender and trust.
At the same time we are yielding to God, we are to be resisting the devil. He wants us to inflate our opinions and wills over God’s. This is precisely why is of vital importance that we come into the presence of God and get in the proper rank under His authority and leadership in order to hear His marching orders for the day.
As we resist the devil, he will flee. He really has no choice in the matter because he is also under God in rank and must submit to the authority of God and His word. The best way to resist our enemy is with the word of God.
Our real focus today, though is verse eight. Do you really long to draw near God. If you do, get ready because more than you long to draw near to Him, He desires to draw near to you. Get this picture. Here you are eagerly and earnestly seeking to draw closer and closer to God while at the same time God is a dead spring drawing closer to you. The end result of these holy collisions, are close encounters that result in life change.
Sometimes the collisions result in revelation and conviction of sin. Other times they result in comfort, or revelation of a new direction in life, or a promise for the future. These collisions are precious. I will never forget many of those collisions in my own personal life like: when God called me to preach, when God showed me I would marry Brenda, when God began revealing new ministries to me and my call to write. I live for those holy collisions and you never know on what morning you will crack the Bible open wearily and God will blow you away with His presence and call on your life. There are times He will tweak your relationship with Him in those collisions. There will be times when your response will be tears and times when you will be exuberant in your worship. Each close encounter collision makes you more like Him and increases your desire for Him.
Right now, at this moment, regardless of where you are, why don’t you put this devotion down and run toward God in prayer in full out sprint and get prepared because He is coming to you with the same attitude. When you two collide, submit to His leadership and let Him do, speak, or shape your life as He wants to.

Steps to Intimacy:

1. Journal your dead sprint toward God.
2. In what areas do you need to resist the Devil? Are there areas of your life not under God’s authority?
3. Journal what God is requiring of you in this time.
4. What has been the most impressionable result of your close encounter collision with God today and throughout these past three weeks together?
Day Twenty One
[Ps 63:8]


Today I have included several translations of this verse to give your further insight into the truth found here.

“My soul followeth hard after Thee, Thy right hand upholdeth me.” KJV
“My soul follows close behind You, Your right hand upholds me.” NKJV
“My soul clings to Thee; Thy right hand upholds me.” NAS

Yesterday we focused on drawing near to God. Today we are going to take that to the next level. I love the King James Version of our text today. Are we really running hard after God today? Too often we get into a casual meander toward the Lord. There is little passion, little energy, and as a result few close encounters. How would you define your attitude toward coming before the Lord today and over the past several weeks? Did you come for a casual stroll, a brisk walk, a slow jog, or a full out sprint, straining every muscle fiber to go faster and harder with each spiritual stride? We should be RUNNING HARD after the Lord and trying to follow Him as close as we can.
We have long distance track champion in our church. While watching her leave the pack hundreds of yards behind in a cross country race recently, I asked her father how she stayed motivated to run her hardest. He commented that she tries to catch the four wheeler leading the race. She pushes herself to the max trying to catch something must faster than she is. That pushes her to go further and faster. That should be our attitude in chasing God.
The truth is we are sprinting toward many things in our lives. We sprint toward making more money, getting job promotions, buying more gadgets and gizmos, positioning ourselves in the community or church for influence, but do we run hard after God? If God is not what we are running hard after, we will most likely find our running is in vain. What have you set your sights on? What is at the end of the finish line of your life? I hope and pray it is God.
Follow hard after the Lord all the days of your life. Make the choice to get right in God’s hip pocket and quicken your pace when He quickens His. Go harder after Him than you have ever imagined and see what happens. It is absolutely impossible to have this mentality and not become more intimate with God and more intense in service for God.

Step to Intimacy:

1. Run hard after God today.
2. Capture this close encounter in your journal






Day Twenty Two
[Acts 13:22]


At the end of your life some preacher will stand over your corpse and speak about your life. What will he say? What one thing will characterize your life above all the other things? God characterized one of His most beloved servants. This servant was far from perfect. His moral mishaps and the blunders of a pathetic parenting are recorded in the pages of scripture. Despite all of that, God’s testimony of His servant David’s life is this, “I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My heart, who will do all my will.”
Don’t rush through those words. Let them sink in. David, an adulterous murderer, a shamefully weak and often disconnected parent, is characterized by God as a man after God’s own heart and willing to do the will of the Lord. Those are HUGE statements not from the voice of some preacher trying to make David look better than he really was, but from the voice of God who sees all and knows all.
David made God the chief pursuit of God. The Psalms are like getting to read David’s journals and see his heart longing, yearning, craving, and hankering for more of God. He sought God in the fields while shepherding the sheep, in dark caves while fleeing for his life from a jealous king, in bouts of depression, and after choosing sin. David made seeking God a priority. In response to all this, God says David just wanted God’s heart to in essence be his heart. David wanted the affection, the attention, and aspirations of God to all be transplanted into his own heart.
Regardless of God’s will, David most of the time wanted to obey it and walk in it. You will not have ponder long here to see that most of us fall woefully short of David’s epitaph from God. Ponder this verse a little longer and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you.

Steps to Intimacy:

1. How has God spoken to you through this verse? Write out your prayerful response.
2. Is there an area of His will you have not submitted to? Come under this authority in each of these areas.
3. We are nearing the end of this journey together. Beginning tomorrow we will be starting our last week. The last step of intimacy on day thirty will require some planning, so you are being given a week notice in order to help with planning. You will be challenged on day thirty to set aside a day for God alone and take personal retreat with Him. This time is to be God’s time. You are being asked to leave your home to get away from the cares of this world to seek the Lord. Give Him your undivided attention. You can be creative as possible with the where, when, and how to but find a secluded spot to lock yourself away with the Lord. Take one day and push everything to the back burner except seeking God.




Day Twenty Three
[Hebrews 4:13]



The day of reckoning is coming. There will be a day when we stand before God and give an account of our whole lives. What we did and didn’t do. We will give an account for how we used our spiritual gifts for His glory. We will be held accountable for how we used our time each day. Accordingly, there will be will be an accounting for how much time we spent in seeking God in contrast with the time we spent pursuing entertainment and recreation. We also answer for how we spent our money, whether we followed His directions, the times we were rebellious against His commands, and the list could continue.
Not one second of our lives has escaped His Sovereign glance. He has seen it all. The good. The bad. The ugly. We will stand with no excuses and nowhere to hide. Everything will be exposed on that day.
Today is a good day to introspect your spiritual condition. God is just as concerned by the inner condition of your heart as He is with the outward appearances of being righteous. Listen as the Holy Spirit reveals different areas in your life that may need to be adjusted.

Steps to Intimacy:
1. Allow the spotlight of the Holy Spirit to reveal sin in your life.
2. What changes do you need to make? List them in your journal.
3. How will you make these necessary changes in your life?
4. Who will hold you accountable in these areas?






















Day Twenty Four
[Ps 119]


Today’s scripture reading is longer than normal. You may not be able to do it all at one time but allow the Lord to take several of those verses and speak to your heart. Pick out the one or ones that speak to you the most.
As you read, take the time to enjoy the banquet of God’s word. Too often we rush through Bible readings like someone wolfing down a meal. Savor truth. Meditate on truth. Let truth marinate in your soul. You will not be able to have intimacy with God apart from the steady and consistent reading of His word. God has much to say to you not just today but for the remainder of your life through His word.
Begin asking the Lord to give you an insatiable appetite for His word. Many people approach Bible reading and study as a duty more than a delight. Allow and expect the Holy Spirit to reveal truth to you today and any time you open and dive into the vast ocean of truth contained in scripture. He will give you insight and inspiration.
Ask the Lord to show you a book in the Bible to begin to study and explore. This will help you to begin to understand truth in context. If you have never done so, I challenge you read the Bible through from Genesis to Revelation. Stay the course and finish this task for the profit and satisfaction of your soul.

Steps to Intimacy:

1. Choose one or two verses from Psalm 119 to memorize.
2. Determine what book of the Bible you will begin to study closer.
3. Pray a prayer using mostly scripture in your prayer. Personalize the scriptures but let most of the prayer be God-breathed with scriptures.
4. Begin quoting scriptures you have already memorized. Try to recall as many of them as you can. How many can you quote?
5. What specific thing or things has God spoken to you today out of His word?

















Day Twenty Five
[Ps 63:2]


Did you attend a worship service this past week? What did you see take place during that service? Music? Preaching? Fellowship? What did you personally experience in the last worship service you attended? What did you go looking for? Did you go to behold and gaze upon the beauty of the Lord?
We should come to church to for God and to listen to Him. Our preferences about styles of music and preaching really do not matter. Our focus must continually look past the personalities on the platform to the presence of God and the clarion call of His voice.
David gives two things we ought to be looking for in the sanctuary. His power. His glory. The word “power” means strength. The word “glory” means weightiness. We need to see His power to maintain hope in a world of trials. We need His glory to keep us humble in an age that loves to exalt talent, beauty whether natural or artificial, and who loves to have our names in marquee lights. Too much of church is about the personalities on the platform rather than the presence of God. I heard a song the other day talk about people trading the altar for a stage. In worship, God is the only one to be in the spotlight.
You can leave worship feeling more like you have been to a talent show rather than in a divine encounter with the Lord. If you are looking for His power, it is displayed in conviction, the salvation of souls, broken hearts mended, and truth being revealed. If you are looking for His glory you will sense His weightiness in the singing and power of His word whether read or spoken.
Take your eyes off yourself and cast a longing glance in God’s direction. Gaze upon His beauty revealed in His power and glory. Your worship habits will never be the same.

Steps to Intimacy:

1. Begin praying about how the Lord has spoken to you.
2. Determine to seek Him in the sanctuary.
3. Prayerfully prepare your heart before attending you next worship service.














Day Twenty Six
[Matthew 9:10-13]


One of the things that will happen as we continue on this journey toward intimacy is God will transform our hearts. We will begin to think differently and we will begin to have a different set of priorities. We will begin to value what He values and treasure what He treasures. There are few things God values and treasures more than reaching lost and straying souls and offering them eternal life.
Little commentary is needed today. God’s word speaks for itself. Father, break our hearts for the souls you long and yearn for. May reaching the lost move up on our priority list. Take all the time needed to reveal truth in our hearts. Please speak for your servants are listening.

Steps to Intimacy:

1. Who were the people attracted to Jesus?
2. Are these same kind of people drawn and attracted to you? Why or why not?
3. How did the religious establishment respond to Jesus?
4. What is the great need identified in verse 12?
5. Why did Jesus say He came?
6. How do these verses personally speak to you and challenge you today?
7. What will you do in response to what the Lord has spoken today?

























Day Twenty Seven
[Mark 1:16-18]


In a book entitled Rachel’s Tears written by her mother, Rachel’s relationship with the Lord is chronicled along with her being martyred at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999 along with eleven other students and a teacher. The killers specifically targeted Rachel by name on video tapes that were made before the tragic massacre. Rachel kept a journal through high school revealing her passionate heart for God. Below I have included an excerpt of one of her journal entries which is moving.
People are crying losing their minds
People are dying taking their lives
Will anyone save them, will anyone help?
Will somebody listen or am I all by myself?
Please reach out your hand and grab a hold of their life
Open their eyes to His wonderful light
Let them know of His undying love
That this comes only from Heaven above
Please reach out your hand and grab a hold of their life
Don’t let go with out a good fight
Witness to them show them the way
Give them God’s love and give it today
I sit here and tell you to go and save a life
But what am I doing to give that good fight
I judge other souls never checking my own
Oh Lord, I should have known
- Rachel’s Tears p. 154
Pretty raw and honest from a teenage girl who was killed because of her stand and witness for Christ. She struggled with witnessing and yet she did it time and time again with her love, voice, talent, and ultimately with her life. Her life, though all to brief, continues to give a strong witness.

Steps to Intimacy:

1. When was the last time you verbally shared your faith with a lost person?
2. What reasons do you have for not witnessing more? Write them in your journal.
3. What do you make of Rachel’s poem? Is the meaning changed by the knowledge of our martyr’s death?
4. What will it take for you to become a fisher of men?









Day Twenty Eight
[Galatians 2:20]


In the book Rachel’s Tears, Rachel often wrote in her journals about wanting to be totally consumed for God and yet the frustration of not being able to get there and the loneliness she faced in walking this deserted and isolated road most of the time.
If you really want to be intimate with God, then you will also have a desire to be completely consumed by Him and you will also know the loathsomeness of loneliness as nominal Christians forsake you and the lost can’t understand you. The deeper you go with the Lord, the more lonely your will become. Today, we are going to look at two different journal entries from Rachel. As you read these entries and combine them with the truth of God’s word, trust the Holy Spirit to speak to you.
Am I the only who sees
Am I the only one who craves your glory
Am I the only one who longs forever to be in your loving arms
All I want is for someone to walk with me
Through these halls of tragedy
Please give me a loving friend who will carry your name until the end
Someone who longs to be with you
Someone who will stay forever true
- Rachel’s Tears p. 77

Dear God, why do I feel dry in your Spirit? Why do I feel that the fire has died within me, yet so many claim they the light of you, oh God burning brightly? Why do I have to feel moments of doubts, distrust, disbelief, stages of anger and stages of loneliness when it comes to you, Father? Why do I lose focus of you during praise and worship as well as prayer? Why can’t I completely be consumed by you? Why can’t I be used by you? Why do I feel self righteous at times? Why do I feel afraid?
- Rachel’s Tears p. 111

Steps to Intimacy:

1. Do you have a desire to be consumed or crucified with Christ? Why or why not?
2. What is keeping you from being crucified and consumed? Be brutally honest in your journal?
3. Do you really crave the glory of God in your life?
4. As you have grown in intimacy with the Lord these past weeks, what are you learning about loneliness?







Day Twenty Nine
[Mark 6:30-31]


As we are nearing the end of this journey together, take the words of Jesus to the disciples to heart. They had just returned for a season of intense ministry. Jesus calls them to solitude and a season of renewal and refreshing. Our culture struggles with disciplines like seclusion, silence, solitude. Yet, without these sown into very fabric of our lives, we will have little intimacy with God.
Where do you go for solitude in this age of unceasingly deafening noise? Where do you personally go to lock everything and every one out of your life long enough to give God your undivided attention? Where are to able to go to linger with the Lord without distraction? I had to go to some soccer fields this week to find such a place.
Tomorrow you are being asked to find a place of solitude and silence for an extended time with the Lord. It would be great if you get alone with the Lord for a whole day but however long you are able to get away, take a personal retreat with the Lord. Many have never taken a personal retreat with the Lord and may find it both intimidating and frustrating in the beginning. Stay the course and press on until you drink of the intoxicating presence of God. Sip long and hard until you are drunk with Him.
Today, you are challenged to finalize whatever preparations need to be made for this retreat. Take some time and draw a road map of how you will use your time during your retreat. Determine where you will go and how long you will have to spend there. Begin now asking the Lord to prepare your heart to hear from Him. Take the remainder of this time to prepare your heart for this thrilling time in your relationship with Him.























Day Thirty
[Luke 5:16]


If you are on your personal retreat right now, congratulations. I took my first personal prayer retreat over a decade ago and just completed a short one recently in which the Lord overwhelmed me with His presence and message for me. It truly was life changing. I go to a cabin overlooking a private lake in East Texas taking my Bible, prayer journal, a few books, and tools for writing messages or books. These retreats have lasted for as short as one day and as long as five. I long to take these retreats two times a year. It is great time to be shut up with God.
At times, I have fasted and prayed while at other times I read more than I prayed. There was even a time when I sensed the Lord leading me to sleep more than normal to rest after an especially intense ministry season. Regardless of what I do with this time, my focus is always the same. SEEK GOD! LISTEN TO WHAT HE HAS TO SAY TO ME!
Taking time away from my wife and boys and our church is never easy. It is always a sacrifice, but it is needed and I am never disappointed. You can read an excerpt written on one such retreat at www.nocompromiseministries.com under special messages entitled SANCTUARY WITH GOD.
Here is your challenge now. You are now hopefully secluded with God somewhere. Use this time to sprint after Him. Pray, read scripture, take a prayer walk, read a book, sit and listen, meditate on specific verses, but most importantly make the Lord your chief ambition during this time. This will be one of the most important days of your life. If you get frustrated with doing one thing move on to something differently. This is your time. You might have to experiment at first. I have found prayer walking outdoors especially meaningful and refreshing to my soul.
If you have been unable to get away today, please do not neglect this important exercise. Schedule it at your earliest convenience. Make a pledge to the Lord that you will honor Him with this retreat. Now, here are your life long final steps to intimacy.

Steps to Intimacy:

1. Take at least one personal prayer retreat at least one time a year for the rest of your life.
2. Continue to get up daily as you have for the past month and seek the Lord through prayer and scripture reading with the same intensity for the remainder of your days.










Some Final Thoughts


It is hard to believe that our month long journey is completed. Only God knows the incredible strides you have made with Him during these weeks. In one way this is the ending of one chapter, but more importantly it only the beginning of the next chapter or your continued journey toward intimacy.
You have the rest of your life to climb the summit of God. You no longer me nor this devotion book. You have tasted God for yourself and you have His word complete with more revelation of Him, His plans and purposes for you. In some ways this devotion has been a crutch for you to lean on until you were able to walk with the Lord by yourself. Prayerfully, you will never be satisfied with anything less than His presence again.
Where will you go from here? My heart rejoices when I think about God implanting His dreams and plans into your hearts. Some of you have heard a call from the Lord for your life during these days. Others have been set ablaze and you are closer to God in this season than you have ever been. Keep climbing higher and burning hotter. Many have been set free and delivered from the dulling power of sin and stale religion. I pray all of you went deeper in God than you ever have imagined and you will continue to submerge and plunge into His unfathomable depths.
Guard your time with the Lord with your life. Fight for it. Cherish it and carve it out of your busy schedules no matter the sacrifice. May we always be passionate pursuers of God ever seeking for more close encounters.

Matt Edwards
December 29, 2005
Paradise, TX.

Homesick for Heaven

Homesick for Heaven



Have you ever been away from home long enough that you became homesick? This happened to me my freshman year at Howard Payne University. When my family drove up with me to help me move in the dorms at the start of two a day football practices and drove off, I felt very alone. I did not know one single person on that football team nor any of the coaches other than the head coach. I was just one of a hundred people going out for the team. Those were forlorn days.
The practices were grueling but the nights were far worse. I would sit in my dorm room staring at the ceiling thinking about home. I missed my mom’s home made biscuits for breakfast and feasts for dinner. I missed my bed, waking up every morning to the familiar and secure setting of our family home located on 410 Cunningham in the Englewood Terrace subdivision in Lufkin, TX. We lived in that house from the time I was fourth grade until I went off to college. I played football in the yard, climbed trees in out front, raked mountains of pine straw piles and then climbed on top of the roof to jump in the middle of them. I rode bikes all over the streets of that subdivision and ran many miles in preparation for football practice. 410 Cunningham was home and sitting in my room in Taylor Hall on the HPU campus four and half hours from there made me melancholy. All I had was God and my Bible to comfort me during those lonely days.
When I go back to Lufkin from time to time, I often make my way to Cunningham Street and drive slowly by the house at 410. It has been remodeled and updated. I often wonder who lives there and if they are developing memories like I have of that place. I sit and stare at the window that was bedroom for all those years. I rewind the memories in my mind of playing catch with a football or baseball with my brother, cousins, and friends. I am no longer homesick for that place. My home is in Paradise and in Paradise I delight to be but the truth is even Paradise is neither my permanent home nor yours. We are simply marking time here. Eternity looms ahead for some closer than others.
I visited with a prized soul yesterday and our conversation turned toward heaven. This saint has lived more years down here nearly than I have been alive all together. The perspective of this seasoned saint inspired this article. This beloved of the Lord daily becomes more homesick for Heaven. It was a refreshing reminder to me that all of these things we think are so important are honestly temporary. How I pray the Lord would help us to number our days. [Ps 90:12] So teach us to number our days that we might present to you a heart of wisdom. While we are seeking to make each day count here, I pray there would surface in our souls a yearning and homesickness for eternity. I am not talking about going to heaven, sitting on a cloud all day, and playing a harp, while singing in a choir forever and ever. That seems rather boring to me. When I read about the real heaven I do grow a little homesick for it. I yearn to leave the trials, the pains, the sorrows, the sickness, disease, burdens, death, and sin of this world in my rearview mirror. I long to gather with the great multitude no man can number from every tribe, kindred, and nation and kneel before the throne of the Lamb of God and worship! [Rev 7:9-10]
I just stopped writing for a moment and began looking through my library to search for a book about heaven. I thumbed through several books and found very little about heaven. I finally came across an old book written by Billy Graham entitled Facing Death and the Life Hereafter. Toward the end of the book he writes; “Will heaven really offer such wonderful benefits that the recruit can’t wait to get started? Vance Havner, who was one of the most quotable pulpiteers of our time, said, ‘I’m homesick for heaven. It’s the hope of dying that has kept me alive this long.’ Heaven is a wonderful place and the benefits for the believer are out of this world.”
If you are increasingly feeling out of place and out of step in this world, it’s alright to be homesick for heaven. We will soon be home praising God the great I AM. While we are here there is still much work to be done but it won’t hurt to think about our eternal home while we labor. And when our appointed time comes, may we say with Paul, “For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” [Phil 1:21]

Canada for Christ

Introduction

Several years ago I was at a conference for college students sitting in a break out session on missions. The Lord spoke to me and challenged my heart in a great way that day. I went from being a self absorbed minister primarily concerned with God’s work around me in the state of Texas and directly around me in East Texas to understanding God’s passion to spread the glory of His name among the nations of the world. [Mark 16:15] [Matt 28:19-20] [Acts 1:8] [Ps 2:8]
It was not long after that conference that my good friend Joel and I were on a prayer retreat in Palestine, TX. We were both lying prostrate on the floor pouring our souls out to the Lord and especially praying for where the Lord might want to send us on mission for Him. I will never forget praying [Is 6:8] “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send and who will for Us?’ Then I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’”
We were begging God to send us somewhere. It dawned on me during those fervent intercessions that somewhere in the world there were people crying out the opposite end of that prayer. They were pleading for God to send help from somewhere on foreign soil and here we were crying out to be sent from the Palestine, TX. We were trusting God to make the connection between those prayers.
He did! I was contacted by a college mate who invited us to go with him on a mission trip to Cuba not long after that. That ten day trip changed my life. I have not been the same. From then on I knew the Lord had called me to be on mission with Him not just in the Bible belt but around the world as well.
Fast forward several years to my call to be the pastor of First Baptist Church Paradise on June 16, 2005. I will never forget that day because it was Father’s day. One of the things I began doing immediately was praying for where the Lord was calling our church to join Him in missions work around the world. Months went by and I felt no clear direction. I prayed and prayed and heard of several trips but never felt any specific calling to join Him on any of them. It was a very frustrating time. I deeply sensed the Lord wanted our church to be on mission with Him in our world but I could not get direction about where to do it. More months went by. Silence ensued.
One morning while praying in my office I reached across my desk and picked up the globe I keep sitting on my there. I began praying over every continent as I slowly spun the globe in clock like fashion asking God to give me His burden and to show me where our church was to be involved with Him around the world. I felt no specific leading though my heart was burdened for the churches and great needs in Asia, Africa, South America, and even in our own continent.
A few weeks later I found myself doing some preaching at a leadership camp in Abilene, TX. One day in between sessions, one of the camp leaders came into the room where I was seated and we struck up a conversation. He had lived in Texas at one time but was now living in Canada where he was serving as the vice president of the Southern Baptist Seminary there. I had heard him speaking about Canada before but my ears had always tuned out.
I began asking a few questions, mostly out of just trying to be polite. Somewhere in the middle of those questions and his answers it was as if the Lord shown a neon light over this guy and whispered in my heart, “This is the answer to the prayer you have been praying. I want you in Canada.”
My response was less than enthusiastic. Canada? That did not seem like a challenging assignment. I wanted our church to be on the front lines and possibly even in the face of danger. Canada seemed tame and even boring. I thought of Canada as a nation much like our own with plenty of churches and gospel witness.
Lou Leventhall and I exchanged email addresses and when I arrived back home after the camp, the Lord continued to press the call to go to Canada on my heart. I sent Lou an email to see if he even remembered who I was. He did and his reply pointed me to some people to contact for specific opportunities to serve in Canada. There were phone calls and many emails before our missions committee felt led to focus on Western Canada. We were put in contact with the church planting strategist for Western Canada who name is Tim Williams.
More emails ensued along with more phone calls. Finally Tim sent us a list of possible churches we could partner with. Two really stood out. The first was a church named Faith Baptist Church in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. The second place we felt drawn to be to a new church start in a small town about an hour from Saskatoon. The First Baptist Church of Humboldt, Saskatchewan, Canada had an interesting story. About six people decided to start this church after the Lord’s prompting in a town with no Baptist church. They have never had a pastor in nearly three years of working. The average age of the church members is about 60. We were drawn there and FBC Paradise began to pray for both churches and what our involvement with them was to be.
A group of five from FBC Paradise, were led to take the first initial trip to Canada to meet with both churches and prayerfully determine what our involvement would mean. We all felt the Lord was calling us to make a minimum of a five year commitment to this area.
A three day exploratory and vision trip was planned for March 10-12, 2007. Randy and Jan Cosgrove, Ren Young, Darrell Fishbeck, and I felt drawn to go on this initial trip. What lies in the rest of these pages are my actual journal entries from the first flight out of DFW International Airport on Saturday morning until we touched back down two days later. So much happened over those three days, it was hard to capture it all on paper. My prayer is that as you read this, you will feel you were right alongside our group each step of the way. I also pray God would open your heart and allow Him to lay His burden for the vast nation of Canada in you.
Let me start this journey with you by offering a simply prayer. Father, I thank you for what you allowed us to experience with you last week. Thank you for choosing our church to join you in this great adventure. I pray you would speak to people and reveal your heart for not only the nation of Canada but also for the other nations of the world as well. I ask you to take these simple pages and this simple language and use it spread your kingdom in hearts and to bring glory to you. Thank you for that in advance.
In Jesus name. Amen.












Saturday March 10, 2007
6:05 a.m.


The alarm went off at 1:45 a.m. Groggily, I drug myself out of bed after barely three hours of sleep and stumbled into the bathroom to shave and shower. By 2:15 a.m. the church van was in our driveway and I was out the door with my luggage. Darrell Fishbeck was driving and Randy and Jan were already loaded on the van eager to start our adventure. We drove to Ren Young’s house and by 2:23 a.m. we were parked in his drive way praying before heading to DFW International Airport.
For weeks our prayers had included the people we would be sitting next to on the plane. All five of us were assigned middle seats and so we had asked the church to pray for ministry opportunities. We had asked the church to join us in these prayers.
I was not looking forward to being wedged between two other people from Dallas to Minneapolis like sardines in a can. God heard our prayers and gave me a ministry opportunity in another way I had not expected. I thought I would be sharing the gospel with a lost person but it turns out God used that time in other ways. I sat in between two young men both heading on trips for Spring Break. Michael, who was seated on my left, was a high school student from Lake Highlands heading to Billings, Montana with a herd of other high school students to ski and snow board. Our conversation was very superficial before he drifted off to sleep for the entire duration of the flight.
The young man seated to my right was a college student from Tarlton State University named Shiloh. Shiloh was a strong believer and gave testimony to his salvation experience with Jesus when I asked him where he would spend eternity. We had several deep theological discussions ranging from the sinful ordination of homosexual pastors, the doctrines of Calvinism verses Armenianism, our physical bodies being the temple of the Holy Spirit, and expository preaching verses topical preaching. Shiloh was flying to North Dakota to meet his fiancé named Naomi. He was only twenty, but I found it refreshing to meet a young man so grounded in the word and mature in his faith as he was. He takes being a spiritual leader of his home seriously. He and Naomi talk each morning to have prayer together before starting their days via cell phones.
Shiloh was terrified to fly. Our spiritual conversations were good for both us. For him they helped to provide comfort while we were taking off, in the air, and landing. For me it helped to pass the time quickly. He was genuinely moved when I told him people from Paradise had been praying for him for weeks even though we had not known his name.
We are only twenty minutes from touching down. What an exciting adventure this is. In about three hours we will be meeting Tim Williams and Steve Fish face to face in Saskatoon. This is the start of a five year adventure. My heart is overjoyed to be joining God on this quest though I do know what all to expect.
We still have two more legs of this journey before we land in Saskatoon. We have a brief lay over in Minneapolis before flying into Regina and then on to Saskatoon. Only the Lord knows all that awaits us there. We are beginning our descent so I will pick back up later.


Saturday March, 10, 2007
10:05 a.m.

We have landed in Minneapolis and are now on board Northwest Airlines flight 1166 which will stop first in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada before heading on to our final destination in Saskatoon. It has been a very smooth trip so far with the exception of feeling fatigued. I guess that is to be expected since we all got up before 2:00 a.m. this morning and got less than three hours sleep the night before. My heart is excited about not only what lies ahead for us on this trip, but also what to look forward to on future trips. Over the next five years, I can see myself coming to Canada multiple times. I’m thrilled that for the second time in my ministry I will have the opportunity to preach on foreign soil. The Lord is burning His word in my heart for those people.
It has been amazing to watch God put all this together. There is nobody seated between Ren and me so I have some time to write. Upon our missions committee feeling drawn to Saskatchewan, we started the Experiencing God study and were pleasantly surprised to see Faith Baptist Church mentioned so prominently in the material because Henry Blackaby served as the pastor of that church several years ago. We knew nothing about Faith Baptist Church and Saskatchewan other than feeling drawn there. It was clear confirmation that we were joining God in this mission’s journey. The Lord provided all the money (over $3,500) for this first trip. Someone also gave a designated gift of $2,000 to be given directly to the work in Canada.
It is amazing to have had a front row seat to have watched God connect FBC Paradise in Texas with two churches with great needs over 1,500 miles away. I feel a deep sense of connection with these people I have never met because of all the intercessions that have gone up on their behalves prior to this trip. I already feel a deep sense of kinship with these brothers and sisters in Christ.
My heart aches for them as they toil to plant gospel seed in the hard soil of Canadian hearts. All reports I have received in advance indicate the progress of the gospel and expansion of God’s kingdom in Canada is slow work. Yet, my faith is undaunted. I look forward to seeing the powerful moving of a Sovereign God over the next five years. I expect our investment to be substantial spiritually as we pray and minister, emotionally as we love and encourage, and financially as we give. Five years starting this Spring Break takes us into the Spring Break of 2012. What can God do over those months and years? Exceedingly and abundantly more than we can think or ask. [Eph 3:20]
I really get excited thinking about taking a large group from FBC Paradise to labor in Canada later this summer. I know the work will be hard but, what better way to showcase the glory and power of God and to challenge our church to pray.
By now we have flown into Canadian air space. I pray for a large vision for this vast country where so many live separated from a relationship with Christ. O Lord, I ask you for a burden for the people of Saskatchewan. I pray for You would burn Your heart of love for these people into the hearts of the flock back in Paradise. I pray now for favor with both Tim and Steve as we meet them in the airport shortly. I ask You for a real connection with Faith Baptist Church this evening and with FBC Humboldt in the morning. I pray for anointing and a real sense of Your presence. I ask You to encourage those saints and let us all believe You for breakthrough in those cities. I’m thankful You revealed Your heart to us and thank You for confirming every step of the way that this is where You want us and have called us to serve.
I ask you to allow our hearts to be captured by the need here. O Lord, please consume us over these next three days. I plead with You to work to give us a clear picture of what You desire from our church and how we can partner with Your work here. Thank You for allowing us to join You in this work. I’m humbled that You have called us to a region with such a rich and rewarding legacy of advancing your kingdom. I pray You will restore Faith Baptist Church to a place of spiritual health and a place of effectiveness like they have not known in years. I’m happy to join You in this and pray for a real legacy of faith to pass on to my sons, the wonderful people in our church, and to tired and battle weary pastors in this country as well. I want to thank You for expanding our territory as a church. We believe You for the miraculous.
At one time Faith Baptist church had over two hundred in attendance, but today they average less than fifty. The only other Baptist church in Saskatoon used to have as many as three hundred in attendance but today they have declined to barely a couple of dozen people. Both churches combined average less than one hundred people in a town with the population of 300,000. The need is great and therefore our commitment must be great as well.
I’m tired. We’re set to land in about an hour and a half, so I think I will try and get some sleep before we start the last leg of the trip.


Saturday March 10, 2007
11:20 a.m.


My brief nap was refreshing. The captain just said we are about 70 miles out from the town of Regina. Looking down, the land looks like a giant sheet cake covered with vanilla icing. The land is covered with snow although the temperature today is only 27 degrees Fahrenheit with a slight wind chill.
Praise the Lord our flight was not crowded and Ren and I were able to sit on the same row with an empty seat in between us. This has been a very smooth and relaxing flight.
We will be on the ground in Regina for only a few minutes before making the forty five minute trip on to Saskatoon. The Lord has answered our prayers by giving us a smooth trip thus far. I expect the Lord to complete that prayer through the last part of our trip and clearing customs in Saskatoon.
From this vantage point Canada looks very desolate. A few farm houses and barns are scattered over the country side but, for the most part all you can see from up here is flat snow covered plains. We just saw two guys on the ground riding snow mobiles. That is not something we see back home. This is definitely new territory for this East Texas native. What is amazing is that the same Jesus who saved me nearly two thousand miles to the south of here is saving people here as well.
I can see the town of Regina in the distance. I can almost see the entire city from up here. It does not appear to be near as large as the Metroplex back home. Now I can make out the snow covered roof tops and front yards of residential homes all built in neat rows. Welcome to Canada! We just touched down!
We have taxied down the runway and made our way to our gate. My mind drifts off to going through customs in Saskatoon. We have been handed Canada Border Services documentation papers which we have all filled out and will be turned in Saskatoon as enter the country.
A Shell fuel truck has just pulled up next to the plane. It reminds of the Time Out Shell station back in Paradise.
From where we have flown thus far, I am surprised by how few trees I have seen. I know Canada is a large country with different types of geography just as in the States. I just never expected the land to be so flat here. It reminds me a lot of Lubbock.
A man just walked down the aisle wearing a Dakota State University Bison sweat shirt. I have never seen one of them before. No Big XII teams up here. In fact, there is no NFL up here. What a concept.
Saskatoon has a university and a professional Canadian football team. This is a different world in many ways and yet people are people no matter where you go. I’m eager to land and meet Tim and Steve. I feel a great sense of expectation and believe this will prove to be a very profitable trip. I hope to be able to capture all of it from start to finish on these pages for the people of Paradise to read when we get back home. I hope they will feel they are here with us.
Lord, I pray for no complications going through customs. I pray for smooth sailing on the rest of our short flight.
On the row in front of us are two small girls giggling and playing while we continue to sit on the ground here in Regina. They remind me my boys back home. I cherished their hugs and kisses last night before they went to bed. Taylor and Tanner have talked me about wanting to come up here this summer too. If the Lord wills, nothing would make me happier than seeing my boys actively involved in God’s work both in Paradise and around the world. Taylor has especially shown an interest in God’s work around the world. I pray I will be able to point all of them continually to God’s heart for the nations and the fulfillment of the Great Commission. “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always even to the end of the age.” [Matt 28:19-20]


Saturday March 10, 2007
12:03 p.m.


The doors on the plane have now been closed and we are pulling away from the gate. In less than an hour, all of our praying will be culminated with the whole purpose for which we made this trip in the first place. We will be walking on Canadian soil.
It is hard to know what to expect. I know we will come in contact with thousands who do not know the Lord and who could care less that we have come to help. We were told in advance not to expect an overly warm reception from the people. I am not sure what kind of reception we will receive from the churches. Our only contacts in this province have been Tim and Steve. We have had not contact whatsoever with the church in Humboldt. Our orientation packet told us Canadians are not very trusting and though they are cordial, they for the most part do not open their hearts or homes easily.
We are air born once again. One thing I have not noticed while looking out the window is even one church steeple indicating the strong presence of God in the community. To my right I see hundreds of houses but no steeples. I cannot fathom the magnitude of a country where 95% of the people are lost and do not attend a church of any kind.
The task before us looks overwhelming. We are not the first church to feel called of God to come to this nation ripe for evangelism harvest. My mind wonders about other pastors and missions teams who have come here with great expectations only to leave disheartened and discouraged. We are not a large church. Our financial resources are limited. There may even be people back home who doubt the validity of Your call Lord to this country. When I look at all that stands in our way in even making the slightest dent in the spiritual void of this country, it is intimidating. But when I turn my attention to You Father, and I think about Your love for this country and Your great desire to save them and provide strong and solid Christ exalting and Bible proclaiming churches, what or whom can stand in Your way. I know you have called us here and the success of this work depends on You and not us.
I don’t know what You are doing here before we ever set foot on this soil but I know You are at work. I sure do not come up here as an expert. I do not think I have all the answers to help solve their problems. All I have is You and the confidence in Your ability to remove any and every mountain before us, whether it be cultural, spiritual, emotional, or financial. You have purposed to work in this country and who can thwart that purpose? You convict people of sin and draw them to Yourself, so how can they resist the lavishness of Your grace? You are more than able to meet all the challenges in Canada, not just on our end, but more importantly for Your faithful remnant church and pastoral leaders who are scattered all over this nation.
I’m humbled and grateful You have chosen FBC Paradise to play a small role in Your global kingdom agenda. We are literally taking [Mark 16:15] to heart. “And He said unto them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.’”
Down below I cannot see any signs of civilization. I can only see snow covered plains far off into the horizon. After several minutes of searching, I have finally located one solitary farm house in the distance. I can only imagine the fortitude of heart needed to battle the brutal winters here. We have it easy today. The skies are clear and the temperature is a balmy 27 degrees. I say balmy because just a few days ago the temperature was below 0. There are times when the temperature dips to a frigid -40. For all the snow on the ground, the roads are remarkably clear. People really live far apart from each other out in these rural sections. It must be very lonely.
The flight attendant just informed us we are nearing our arrival in Saskatoon. Our mission began with being passengers seated in the middle of complete strangers back in Dallas, TX. Now we are about to make our first contact with the people of Canada.
I’m excited and eager to learn, to listen, and to watch where the Father is at work. Though our task is formidable, I have a peace that all of this has been God ordained and orchestrated.
Down below, next to the silhouette of the plane’s shadow, I can see the first major highway and the beginning signs of a more urban setting. Again I can make out a lot of houses and buildings but, I have yet to find a church steeple. The lack of church steeples is symbolic of the spiritual void that exists in this land. In the distance I can see the Canadian flag waving in the breeze atop a flag pole. We have just touched down. Welcome to Saskatoon.

March 10, 2007
5:55 p.m.

After landing in Saskatoon, we have been in two different meetings and we had the chance to tour the Faith Baptist Church where Henry Blackaby had such powerful encounters with God. Our meetings lasted four hours to help orientate us into the cultural and spiritual needs in Saskatchewan. My mind is swimming with information. The need here is every bit as great as we thought it would be if not greater. I took four pages of notes on the information they gave us. Over the course of the next two days I will try to share as much of that information as time permits on the pages of this journal.
Physically I am exhausted but spiritually I’m pumped. I know God has called us here and apart from Him, we will never be able to make much difference, yet with God all things are possible. [Matt 19:26]
There are two churches with gigantic needs we have been put in contact with. We serve an incredible God with unlimited power and resources. It was mind boggling to hear about all the needs and to think about our church trying to meet them. It will be impossible in the natural realm. We have to tap into God’s supernatural power to make any lasting difference.
One of the big things we learned in our meetings was the importance of building trust with the people. Since Canadians are not very trusting people, I think servant evangelism projects will be a huge part of our service here.


Sunday March 11, 2007
6:30 a.m.


We had a good night of sleep once we were able to get our room cooled off. Darrell, Ren, and I shared a room while Randy and Jan had their own room down the hall. I’m still amazed that I’m sitting in the hotel room lobby in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. It was hot in the room and to date I still have not worn my coat, hat, or gloves. The room was hot until Ren figured out how to turn the fan on the window unit since the knobs were all missing. It is not uncommon for people here not to have air conditioning in their homes even though temperatures can get as high as 100 degrees in the summers. I’m sitting down in the lobby in beach shorts, a tee shirt, and my star spangled banner flip flops. Tim and Steve have assured this is atypical weather and that we must have brought the warm weather from Texas.
It is good to get up early to spend time with You, Father. There was no place to meet with You in the room, so this lobby will have to do, though the television is blaring in the background. I’m glad to have this place though to block out everything else but You. Although I am over a thousand miles from home, meeting with You is the same. It is my favorite time of the day. I’m thankful that I get to minister Your word today in Humboldt. I am so very grateful You have called me to this work. I ask you to burn Your message on my heart for those dear folks in Humboldt. It feels like molten lava about to erupt.
I ask You to move deep in my soul to prepare me to minister to those people. I ask You to give me connection with them and I ask You to grant us favor with them. I pray for an immediate bond and that You would allow our team to build trust with the people in Humboldt. I ask You for fresh anointing on our whole team. I pray You would really give us a heart for this country. I know there are no quick fixes but I will not doubt You nor doubt Your power to work and move. I pray for humility and meekness as I share Your word. I pray You would help me to be sensitive to Your leadership.
Our schedule today calls for us to meet for breakfast at 7:30 a.m. and then to leave for Humboldt at 8:30 a.m. It will take us about an hour to drive out to First Baptist Church. The service is scheduled to start at 10:30 a.m. Darrell will be leading the music today and Randy is going to give his testimony. I will preach from Luke chapter five. After the service we will go to lunch with the church leadership and then have a meeting in one of the member’s home where we will do more planning about our involvement in the future. To be invited into a home here is a big deal. Due to lack of trust and being that people being very slow to open their hearts here, it is a great honor to be invited into someone’s home. This is not something we are taking for granted. After our meetings in Humboldt, we plan to meet with the pastor of Faith Baptist Church, Steve Fish, this evening for one last meeting. It will be a full and exciting day.
This will be the second time that I have been blessed with the chance to preach the riches of God’s word outside the borders of the United States. I’m humbled God would allow me to make spiritual investment here. I pray the people will be encouraged in Humboldt. I pray Your presence will be felt in a way they have not felt for a long time. I ask You for a deeply spiritual service. I pray for a real connection with the leadership and that You show our team favor.
I pray You would allow me the great privilege of establishing a long term ministry in this country. Please help me to become an advocate for Canada both here and when I get back home. May I work with other pastors and churches to partner churches from the States with the need here in Saskatoon. I am thankful You have called us to be one the first churches to get involved. I plead for Your help and effectiveness.
One of the highlights and low lights for me yesterday was to walk the halls and in the sanctuary of Faith Baptist Church. To walk in the same places where Henry Blackaby walked was thrilling and humbling. When I think of the impact of his ministry not only in Canada but all over the world, I cannot believe God has opened the door for us to partner in this same region. I’m thrilled. Yet, on the other hand, I am saddened to see the condition of the church spiritually, numerically, and physically. The carpet looks like it is the original carpet put down nearly thirty years ago. The church has struggled so much that they are renting their facilities to two different music teachers and a Korean Presbyterian Church. They are also renting out two of the three church offices. Faith Baptist Church has fallen on some really hard times. In fact, all the Baptist churches in Saskatoon (there are only two of them) have fallen on hard times.
I do not sense the deep spirituality in the pastor that I have sensed from Henry Blackaby when I have heard him preach and read his books. In all of the meetings yesterday, I heard very little about prayer and the power of God. I did hear a lot about methodologies. Only God meet the needs here.
We heard about one church planter who sent our 10,000 flyers for his church and they had only ten adults respond. Additionally, we heard about a church planter who sent out over 60,000 flyers for his new church inviting people to the first service. Not one person responded. Only fervent prayer can break up the fallow ground of Canada to open people’s heart to the gospel.


Sunday March 11, 2007
8:55 a.m.


After the team ate breakfast together, we have loaded into our rental van and are driving to Humboldt. I trust the Lord for a deeply spiritual service. I pray You would allow Your anointing to make connection with these people and breakthrough our cultural barriers. I pray Lord You would help us to earn trust.
On this drive we have seen a few deer and cattle (despite the deep snow) and the more rural life outside the city of Saskatoon. I’m enjoying the time on this trip with our team. The Lord continually affirms our faith in coming here. Our time here has been very informative. Five out of every one hundred people in this country are saved. I still cannot fathom that ninety five out of every one hundred people are lost without Christ. That is staggering. There are multitudes of lost people back in Paradise but there are also strong numbers of believers too. Hundreds even a thousand plus people are meeting this morning in Paradise to worship in all the local churches. There is still evangelistic work to do in the Bible belt; but at least there is a witness. We’ve been in Canada for nearly eighteen hours and we have just seen our second church steeple off in the distance. I can walk out on the front porch of FBC Paradise and can easily see the steeples of The Church of Christ, First Christian Church, and First United Methodist Church all within easy walking distance not to mention our own steeple. Things are much different here.
Much of this country reminds me of home. Down the street from our hotel are a McDonalds and a Burger King. For the most part the language is the same although the restroom is called the “washroom”. Most of the driving laws are the same except the speed limits being in kilometers rather than miles per hour. One major cultural difference here is that people take their shoes off before entering someone’s home. We took our shoes off while walking around Faith Baptist Church. The one major difference that stands out to me is the lostness of this country. There are not churches on every street corner. If you see a church at all most likely it is Catholic. There is a spiritual darkness over this land like a spiritual eclipse. Back home there are thousands and thousands of believers in Wise County who contrast the darkness by being the light of the world. There is little light in this dark and Christless country.
Do not let the physical beauty of this place fool you. This is a pagan country and with the exception of a few pastors, church planters, and denominational employees, there is not any help. That is why it is so critical for churches like ours to leave the comfort of our Bible belt existence and come sow seed in Canadian soil. The need is so great that these remnant believers cannot do it alone.
We just saw a sign for Humboldt to the east as we travel highway 5. We are getting close. There are beautiful rolling hills along the road now with a few trees mixed in periodically. The barbed wire fence posts are half to three quarters buried in the snow. We were told yesterday they got their first snow in September and the snow will not all melt until sometime in May. Canadians have only about three months when the weather is good. During these months they vacation and spend as much time outdoors as possible.
One thing I’ve learned in our brief time here is not to take Paradise for granted. I’m grateful for our committed core members who love and serve. I’m grateful for God’s provision for us to keep doing ministry and even take trips like we are own. I’m grateful for the love and support of the flock that make serving there such an enjoyable experience. I’m living a blessed life.
Father, as we get nearer to Humboldt we are only forty five minutes from the start of the service. My heart is ready to minister to these people. I feel like a race horse in the starting gates anxious to run. I yearn to start making a real spiritual investment in this country and among these people specifically. I yearn to be a man who gives myself wholly to Your mission work here. I pray You would deepen my affections for these people even though I have never laid eyes on them.







Sunday March 11, 2007
10:35 a.m.


FBC Humboldt meets in a Senior Citizen Center made out of wood siding painted white with brown trim. We prayed together as a mission team in a side room before the start of the service. What a meeting. I have felt such a deep sense of God’s presence here. The prayer meeting was the real thing. How humbling to join God in the midst of this great church and God’s work here. It is not great in size of numerical attendance but the undaunted faith of these people inspires me.
Including our team, there are a total of seventeen people present this morning. The singing of the first hymn (Victory in Jesus) was worship like I have not been a part of in a long time. Darrell led that old familiar song from a dilapidated out of tune piano, but I’ve not heard singing or experienced worship like that in a long long while. Those people were hungry for God and the presence of God saturated that Senior Citizen Center. What made it so spiritually enriching was the presence of God we all felt. God is here and He has invited us to join Him here.
Randy Cosgrove is sharing his testimony as I write this and the people are listening intently. His story is the old familiar story of Amazing Grace and Victory in Jesus. What a testimony. On the day Randy was saved he walked down the aisle during a Sunday morning worship service. He did not know what to pray or even what to do but God saved him anyway. Just as the Lord saved Randy who grew up in a Godless pagan home, He will also save people both in Paradise and in Humboldt.
Darrell continues to lead us in worship. It is awesome! I do not sense the presence of God so strongly back in Paradise. These people mean business and perhaps we take church and worship for granted back home. It easy to do so with our padded pews, easy access to the facilities, our wonderful musical instruments and accompanist. These people have to work hard each Sunday to have church. To whom much is given much is required.

March 11, 2007
2:00 p.m.


Preaching for the people of Humboldt was an AWESOME experience. I felt anointed and an immediate connection with the people. It was a treasured time of ministry. I know the people were encouraged and faith was built because several told us so. I heard one person on our team relate that one of the Humboldt ladies commented she felt like she had known us for years. God answered our prayers in allowing us to build trust with these people. We went out to eat after church where we spent nearly two hours cultivating relationships.
Now we are sitting in Nick and Mary’s home (I do not know their last name) which is a huge honor for us. Outside the snow banks on the sidewalks and driveways are three and four feet deep. The street lamps in people’s yards stand strained at their necks barely keeping their lamps above the snow in places. We have gathered with seven of the core members of FBC Humboldt to meet about our future involvement and to pray.
These people are beautiful. Our involvement here is definitely God ordained and God orchestrated.
What will come of our meeting this afternoon?


March 11, 2007
4:56 p.m.


We met for two hours and enjoyed a sweet season of prayer. It is like we have been ordained to be here. There is no way I can effectively describe the spiritual and emotional connection we have felt with these sweet people. It has been designed by God. We have laughed together, prayed together, planned together, and dreamed the Lord’s dream together. Several options were discussed about our involvement here. We ended the meeting with a commitment to pray over the next couple of weeks concerning what we are to do. Two options really stood out. We could help out in the community during a city wide festival in late June and early July called Summer Sizzler doing servant evangelism and possibly some remodeling work on the Senior Citizen Center they are renting. We talked about the possibility of doing some youth work but the time may not be ready for that. I’m not sure what our exact involvement will be, but just out of our conversations with the members I know there is a need and feel a peace this is where the Lord wants us to labor.
There is a lady in this group from Humboldt who drives over from the town of Leroy (which is also mentioned in Experiencing God) to come to church. She commented that within one year the church there will most likely shut down and there will not be any evangelical church in that town. We met another lady who was from South Africa. Are these spring boards to other mission opportunities? The Lord will reveal if they are. Until then we are to pray, watch, wait, and join God.
Nick and Mary, an older couple who seem to be the church leaders, are the most committed of this core it seems. They just told us they don’t want us to leave even though we have stayed two hours longer than we had first anticipated. They want to take our team out for dinner because they are enjoying our visit so much. This is the very antithesis of what we were told to expect from Canadians. Their hospitality has been warm and a pleasant experience for all of us. We have just been served chocolate cake and ice cream. It is more evidence and confirmation of God directing us to these people and answering prayers for favor with them.
This has been an overwhelming experience on so many different levels. I want to thank You Lord for allowing me to partake of all this. I pray for wisdom about what exactly You want our church to do on our next trip here and when that trip should be. I pray for wisdom and discernment about the mission of our next trip and the dates of that trip.
You already know the best option and You already know what will make the most kingdom impact for You. I pray for a sense of Your direction in Humboldt and I ask You for a sense of what You have predestined us to do. I ask You to deepen all our affections for this place.
I’ll never forget Ren’s prayer in that living room. Even though we were over a thousand miles from home in Paradise he said that he felt like he was home as well in Humboldt. Lord you have done this in all our hearts. Praise be Your name.
Randy is sitting in the den visiting with two men from Humboldt, Nick and Roy. Jan is in another part of the house visiting with Mary who is married to Nick. They are both in their seventies. Darrell, Ren, and I are sitting at the dining table talking theology while I am trying to lasso this trip with words onto the printed page. Our time here has been full, rich, enriching, as well as rewarding.
It was a joy to call back to FBC Paradise while they were meeting in Experiencing God and to get to talk to Leisha Young to give a small update on what we are doing here in Canada. We asked FBC Paradise to pray for Humboldt to find a pastor and for wisdom about what we are to do on our next trip. I pray that was an exciting and encouraging moment for our church as well as for the Humboldt church.



Monday March 12, 2007
7:20 a.m.


After going out to eat with Nick, Mary, and Roy, we drove back to Saskatoon getting here a little before 10:00 p.m. Steve Fish wanted to meet with us last night for one more meeting. We met him at a coffee shop along with one of the members from his church who was a tall slender man named Tony. I have to confess that after thirty minutes of that meeting, I was tired and ready to go back to the hotel for some sleep.
I have enjoyed my time in Canada and have learned much in the short time we have been here. Preaching in Humboldt was a real treasure and delight. The word the Lord gave me proved to be very timely for them. My prayers were answered as several people came to me and said they were encouraged through the message. I can see now that my church planting experience with CentrePointe has prepared me to minister to these people in Humboldt who are going through the hard struggles of starting a church and trying to grow it.
Humboldt has a large Catholic influence. The Catholic church has a strangle hold on the schools and it did have a vice like grip on the hospital until the town voted for the hospital to go public about a week before we arrived. Estimations are that anywhere from 60%-70% of the people claim to be Catholic though much fewer really attend mass. I sense a real spiritual hunger in people who are tired of going through the ritual of religion.
All we have heard is how hard the work is here but I cannot discount the power of God to breakthrough all of that. I really got a sense that the people of Humboldt know how to pray and seek the Lord’s face. Nick and Mary have to be in their seventies and their own children have told them they are too old to be starting a church, yet they keep going. They are an inspiration to me and I hope will also inspire our senior adults back in Paradise. I hope to be able to clearly communicate the vision of what You are doing here Lord. I plead for our church to really get behind the people of Humboldt. I pray for Your call on people to come join us on our next trip and for Your call on people to give financially make this mission possible.

Monday March 12, 2007
12:10 p.m.


We are sitting in the airport here in Saskatoon awaiting our flight back to the States. We will fly to the capitol city of Regina and then onto Minneapolis where we will go through customs and finally board another plane to take us back to DFW. It has been a great trip, but it will be nice to get back home. So much has happened over the last three days. It has been a challenge to capture my thoughts and observations along the way. I’ve sought to write in this journal every chance I have had. It will be a challenge to cast vision so that our people can really get a heart for what the Lord is calling us to do here. It has been such a rich experience for us. Long will I recall the passion with which I heard the Humboldt church sing with yesterday, morning! Their devotion to God was evident though the median age of the church is about sixty years old. Think of it. Senior adults stepping out in faith in their twilight years believing God for a miracle church to be birthed. They have had little to no help. They simply heard the call of God to start the church and faithfully plod along week after week.
Another challenge we will face is to be focused on doing only what the Lord leads us to do. There is so much work to do and at this point we cannot meet every need. The truth is we will never be able to meet every need but God can.
All of us felt a deep spiritual connection with the people in Humboldt. We are excited about our future there and all the Lord will do in us and through us over the next five years.
The financial challenges of bringing a large team here are great. We have only been here three days and it cost our teams $3,500. Yet, the God who called us will make a way for us to continue the work there. He will show Himself to be a timely provider.






Monday March 12, 2007
1:07 p.m.


We are now seated on the plane getting ready to taxi out to the run way. The Saskatoon airport is not a big airport. It reminds me of the airports in Amarillo, Lubbock, and Odessa. There are only about seven gates so it should not take long.
Maria is a wonderful flight attendant we just met while getting seated. Not only is she a Christian but a Southern Baptist as well. She saw Ren’s Experiencing God book and since then we have been talking God stuff. She is a faithful witness in the air. Maria lives in Minneapolis and has been a flight attendant for the past eleven years. It is encouraging to know that God has His missionaries scattered all over the world in disguise as flight attendants, business people, teachers, and various other positions spreading the good news of Jesus Christ.
Just the same, I’m thankful for the remnant church in Canada and especially in Humboldt who continue to be the light of the world in a very dark place. Father, I lift up the people at Humboldt and ask You to encourage them. I ask You to increase their faith and bless them with the desires of their hearts and the desire of Your heart in a pastor. I do not know where that man is. I do not know how You will call and connect that man to Humboldt but I absolutely trust You to do so. I trust You for provision to make that position available. I pray You would release Your money to FBCH and to Canada through our church and other churches in the States as well. I pray You would help us to believe You to expand Your kingdom. I’m thrilled to worship You and to join You in another adventure that stretches my faith. I pray You would give FBC Paradise a heart to seek Your Kingdom first and that all these other things would be added to us. [Matt 6:33] I’m thrilled to have found a nation where You have called us to serve. Only You could have connected us to Humboldt. What a blessing to partner with You. You have exceeded our hopes with a heart connection with these people. You have led us to make a covenant partnership with them. This looks so huge but You have done the work and moved obstacles that could have stood in our way. You can and will help make a way where there seems to be no way. With You the sky is the limit. I say yes to all You want to do in Canada through me personally and through the ministry of our church. I say “yes” to Your work around the world and all over Paradise.
I’m looking forward to getting back home to Brenda and the boys. I can’t wait to share all this with my best friend and wife. I can’t wait to see her heart open up to Your work here in this country. I can’t wait to bring my boys back here someday so they can serve and witness Your work with their very own eyes. I ask You to birth a heart for missions and evangelism in their young and impressionable hearts. I don’t know how You will provide for our next trip but I trust You to do that.
We are about to touch down in Regina. Slowly but surely we are making our way back to Texas. I wish I could unzip my heart and allow all I have experienced on this trip to spill out on these pages but, alas I am limited to this pen and my vocabulary. I’m helpless to really communicate the need and the visible work of the Lord I witnessed as the Lord bonded our hearts with the hearts of the people from Humboldt. I saw the Lord work in bonding their hearts with us as well. I don’t know how many trips the Lord is going to call me to make over the next several years, but I know part of my heart will remain in Canada once we cross back over into the United States. Lord willing, I will be back on Canadian soil many many times.
We have just landed in Regina. I don’t think I have ever been on any preaching trip that has gone any smoother than this trip. I attribute that to all the prayer that has gone into this. I know our people back home have faithfully lifted us up. It has made all the difference. Jan did a phenomenal job of organizing all the logistics. It has been evident that God has gone before us to smooth the way each part of this journey. It has been a glorious experience.
I will always treasure my experience of getting to preach in Humboldt. Those people were hungry for the word and they ate it up like a hungry man at dinner. You transcended all barriers to do Your work among those people. Praise You Lord.
Randy was able to pray with a man who had been battling sin for a long time yesterday in Nick and Mary’s home. Jan was able to share her testimony with Mary who knew the pain of marrying a lost man and praying fervently to see that man saved. The future here is pregnant with ministry opportunities.

Monday March 12, 2007
2:09 p.m.


We are on the ground in Regina taking on a few passengers headed to the United States. The door has closed and the fasten seat belt sign has been lit. I have an entire row to myself to collect my thoughts and continue these journal entries. Soon we will be air born headed to Minnesota. I’m looking forward to being back home. I miss Brenda and the boys and I miss the wonderful flock back in Paradise. I miss my office where I can lock myself away from the outside world to seek and hear God. I miss my sleeping in my own bed, but I know part of my heart will remain in Canada. Part of my passion for the advancement of the Kingdom will remain here as well. I look forward to my return to this foreign soil we now call home away from home.
We are barreling down the runway taking off. Once again we are off the ground and in the air. It will take around two hours to get back to Minneapolis. We should touch down around 4:50 p.m. with Daylight Savings Time computed in.
This will give me a good chance to relate the valuable information we learned in our orientation meetings on Saturday. I have not had any time to get that information put into this journal. I took four pages of notes on our meetings and want to share the most important stuff now.
Canada is a very different country with different attitudes than the United States. In one survey given to Canadians they were asked, “What does it mean to be Canadian?” The overwhelming number one response was, “Not American.” Most people here do not have a great deal of appreciation for Americans or America. We definitely found exceptions to this rule in our travels and conversations with people.
Canadians value tolerance much more so than people in the States do, though it seems our country is following suit. Therefore, Canadians are tolerant of all religions and not aggressive in sharing the gospel. Everyone in Canada is seen to have the right to believe what they want to believe and to share the gospel could be seen has very pushy and arrogant. Confrontational evangelism is not the most effective method as a result.
The province of Saskatchewan is as large as the state of Texas. Within that land mass are only about one million people. Texas has cites with that many people. Over half of the population of Saskatchewan can be found in two cities; Regina with about 200,000 and Saskatoon with close to 300,000 people living there. Over the past decade 500,000 people have left this province to follow the oil boom in Alberta. Predictions suggest that there will be major growth in Saskatchewan as housing costs in Alberta continue to sky rocket. We were told that an average 1,600 square feet house in Alberta used to go for about $200,000 just a few years ago but now that same house would cost $400,000. People cannot afford to live in Alberta and so the prediction is that people will come back to Saskatchewan where there is every bit as much oil as in Alberta but it has not been tapped into yet. Due to the mass exodus of people over the past decade, this province is economically depressed. Most of the skilled laborers left and followed the oil boom where the money is. I see this fact as one way our church will able help doing some type of construction projects.
The town of Humboldt could actually double in population over the next ten years because of the affordable housing there. This is why it is so crucial that we get on the front end of that growth rather than waiting until the back end. This is what happened in Alberta and the church is has been playing catch up ever since.
The towns of Regina and Saskatoon account for half of the population of the entire province. That means that at least half of the population lives in rural settings. This cold be readily seen when we flew in a couple of days ago.
Ren just came back to my seat to tell me he read about Humboldt in his Experiencing God work book. Many years ago Faith Baptist Church had wanted to start a church in Humboldt and actually had a Bible Study meeting there. One of the local churches got a delegation together and actively opposed the Bible study and desire to plant a church in that town. These town people said the work of a Baptist church was the work of the Devil.
Praise the Lord nearly three years ago Mary read this as she was going through the Experiencing God study on her own and the Lord used it to call her and Nick to start the First Baptist Church of Humboldt. It was their desire to have a Bible believing, gospel proclaiming, and Christ exalting church. The dominant church in town is the Catholic Church. Their intimidation tactics have been used over and over to prevent evangelical churches from being planted in towns all over Canada. One person made the comment that Humboldt was a Catholic town but someone else quickly spoke up and said Humboldt was God’s town.
Driving through Humboldt yesterday morning we found this to be true. The largest church building with massive facilities was the St. Augustine Roman Catholic Church. The Catholic Church is so influential across the nation that there are two separate school systems; the public schools and the Catholic schools even though the government funds both of them.
In the Bible Belt of Canada, a large church other than the Catholics would be a church of around 350. The need for multiple churches is obvious and the support of those churches is crucial. In the province of Saskatchewan there is about one truly evangelical church for about every 2,000 people. These numbers are good in comparison to the numbers in Eastern Canada where there are only a few churches for tens of thousands of people.
Despite this, the gospel is advancing. For every twelve members of a Baptist church statistics indicate that one person is saved and baptized. That ratio would be much higher in the state of Texas. It takes more members to see one person saved back home. The work in Canada is very slow but people are being saved through relational evangelism. Most churches are just trying to survive from week to week and month and month to keep the doors open. We heard a story yesterday about a church that is right on the verge of closing the doors. If it does there will not be any gospel witness from a church that town. Is this an invitation from God to join Him in this work as well?
The largest Baptist church in Saskatchewan is a church located in Prince Albert which has 250 in attendance. There are churches that have not been able to find a pastor in nearly a decade. As a result the attendance of such churches plummets and giving goes down and they are unable to support a pastor by themselves. They need help.
Though there has been Baptist influence in Canada for the past fifty years, the Canadian Convention of Southern Baptists has existed since only 1986. There is a huge leadership void as far as potential pastors and church planters across the whole convention.
As I mentioned earlier, God once again used Henry Blackaby and the book, Experiencing God, he wrote to give birth to FBC Humboldt. Before FBC church existed people went to a non-denominational church. When the leadership of this church began to support the ordination of homosexual pastors the last straw was broken. That is when Nick and Mary left that church and began praying for what they would do next. God used the Experiencing God study to call them to start FBC Humboldt. This will not be an easy work for any pastor. There will be sacrifices on all fronts but the God who calls is also faithful to bring it to pass. [I Thess 5:24] The most the convention can give any pastor starting a new church is a $1,000 a month. It is not much but it is a start like the loaves and the fish. God can multiply it and add more to that amount.
I still cannot wrap my mind around the fact that 95:100 people are lost in this country. There are some provinces where that number would increase to about 99.5:100 such as Quebec. Lord, how can I communicate this great need to the people back home? What can I do so they really get it? Our church must rally around what You are doing in Saskatchewan. We must pray as we have never prayed before.
Welcome back to the United States. The landing gear has just been lowered and we are only moments from touching down in Minneapolis. How can those below ever comprehend how we have met with God and experienced Him in such magnificent ways? We are on the ground. We have a two hour lay over before one last flight back to Dallas followed by a short drive back to Paradise. It is 4:40 p.m.

March 12, 2007
7:24 p.m.


We have boarded the plane and soon we will be in the air again. This flight appears to be more crowded than our last one. I am still praying and holding out hope for some space between me any other passenger so I can finish this journaling. Praise the Lord. I just asked the flight attendant if I could move seats and she moved me to an empty seat with an empty middle seat between me and a lady seated on the aisle. I am seated on the exit row near the window with plenty of leg and elbow room. The lady next to me has ear phones in her ears watching some movie on a portable device.
I’ve enjoyed this trip but my heart has turned toward home. What a journey we have been on for the last several days. I’ve learned much and had my faith challenged along with getting a God sized burden for Canada.
The one thing we heard over and over again from church leaders is that our trip would be successful if we could just build trust with the people. We were encouraged to take it easy and not to be too aggressive since they would be more reserved. The Christ in us proved to be more powerful than cultural barriers. Even though we were loud Americans in spite of ourselves, God still used us. I was continually conscience in most restaurants that we were often the loudest people there laughing and talking. I was told not to preach with too much volume but God used me just being me in preaching. I tried to share with a softer more gentle style but I am afraid the more excited I became the more the volume increased. I could see the people responding and yearning for the pure milk of the word. Some nodded in approval, others smiled, there were a few on the edge of their seat, and God did every bit of that even to the point we they verbally responded to my questions in the message just like the people back home in Paradise. Each one of those things was evidence of God’s working and answering our prayers to show us favor.
I wrote down three goals in our meetings on Saturday I hoped we could accomplish on this trip. First, I wanted our team to build trust with the people. God accomplished that. Second, I hoped that our team and the people in Humboldt could really get to know each other. The Lord accomplished that as well. My third goal was to determine when we would go back and what we would be doing on our next trip. That is still a matter of prayer. God will reveal it in time.
We drove into the town of Humboldt on Sunday morning as complete strangers. We left having had our souls knit together with the brothers and sisters in Christ in that town. We are spiritual family.
We just lifted off the ground for one final flight back to Texas. The air might be turbulent as reports of Thunderstorms have been related to the captain. In a short while our feet will touch the soil of familiar territory. We will walk to baggage claim to get our luggage and then walk out to the parking area to get into the van and drive back to Paradise on Hwy 114. It will be a glorious reunion in my heart when I see that old Paradise city limits sign. There might be some sleepy eyed little boys still awake hoping to see their daddy. There will be a loving and supportive wife who will be too excited to sleep their to greet me with a hug and kiss. Similar reunions will happen in the Fishbeck, Young, and Cosgrove households as well.
It will be good to sleep in my bed and drive the streets of Paradise and see familiar faces.
This trip was more enjoyable than when I went to Cuba because I have had a team to share it all with. We experienced the trip together. I’m more connected to the other four who journeyed to Canada. We will forever share memories and situations where you would have just had been there to enjoy it like we did. I shared deep conversations and prayers with this group. They have delighted and encouraged my soul.
The Canadian Southern Baptist Convention has a goal of every person in Canada hearing the gospel from someone they trust. That will not happen without the outside help of partnering and covenanting churches such as FBC Paradise.
The province of Saskatchewan is as large as the state of Texas with only thirteen missions or Baptist churches in the whole province. We need teams to prayer walk, to do servant evangelism projects, to do carpentry projects, and to help plant additional churches. How many towns in this province have no evangelical church whatsoever?
The convention has also set an aggressive goal of planting 1,000 churches by the year of 2020. As of 2007 they have planted about 250, so as you can see there is a long way to go. The goal goes much deeper than just planting 1,000 churches. The dream is for each of these churches in turn to help plant and support other churches while remaining healthy themselves.
The last line of my notes from those first two initial meetings in Saskatoon reads like this, “Canada is a hard place. God, break up the fallow ground.”
Now the ball is laid in our court at FBC Paradise. We will we join God in what He is doing there. I have no choice personally. I am mandated by God to sink my life deep into the Saskatchewan soil. Lord, I lift up the flock at FBC Paradise and ask them to join You in this as well. Will our faith be challenged? Absolutely yes! Will it be easy work? No! Will our faith be stretched in ways we could never fathom? You bet. Will we have to raise thousands and tens of thousands of dollars over the next five years? Definitely! Will there be sacrifice called for on all our parts? Absolutely! Will those sacrifices include vacation, finances, and time away from family? Positively! Will FBC Paradise join God in something that is bigger than us? I have not known this church to shrink back in unbelief and disobedience in the twenty months I have served as pastor.
Father, I pray for every person who will read these pages. I pray the words would convey Your heart and capture the souls of men women and teenagers for the nations and specifically Canada. I pray You would allow Your people to be begin to live for something bigger than themselves. I ask You to reveal Your global agenda and for Your world wide purposes to be transplanted into every heart. I ask You to move people to pray like they have never interceded before. I plead with You to call people to stand in the gap for the nation of Canada, the province of Saskatchewan, and the town of Humboldt. I ask You to weigh Your burden on our hearts and break us from being smug and satisfied with only the borders of Paradise. I trust You to call people to go on future mission trips not only to Canada but also to the ends of the earth. I ask You to bless people with the financial freedom to enable others to go on these future mission trips. I pray for deep pockets and generous hearts. I also ask You for a clear vision of what You want to accomplish in Humboldt and beyond. Show us where to start and what exactly we are to do. I also beseech You to call us to adopt FBC Humboldt in our hearts. I’m saying “yes” to You. I give my life and ministry to both places. I give myself anew to the ministry at FBC Paradise but I also commit to the advancement of Your kingdom around the world starting in Canada.
I come again asking You to raise a pastor for that church. I know You already know who that man is and where he is tonight. I pray for Your call to come to him. I pray for You to give him strong unwavering faith. I trust You for a man who loves your word. I request a man who is strong, resilient, and compassionate to shepherd the flock in Humboldt. I pray for a man who loves You more than he loves his own family or ministry success. I ask You now to grant our church favor with that man and for a real spiritual kinship with him over the next several years. I believe You to bring this man quickly without further delay. The need is great and You are more than sufficient to answer this prayer.
I ask You to show those people favor with the mayor, with city officials, and with strategic people in Humboldt. I ask You to grant that band of believers tenacious faith to keep enduring. I plead with You to encourage them and to bless their obedience. I trust You for the miraculous and for the gentle reminder that they are not alone in this quest but have partnered with You.
Please help us to maintain steady and constant contact with those precious people. I pray through correspondence that You would deepen our love for one another and our bond would grow despite the fifteen hundred miles that separate us.

Monday March 12, 2007
9:46 p.m.


The Lord is brining the first chapter of this new mission pilgrimage full circle. After dodging some turbulent weather which took us further east than the captain intended, we have been cleared for landing at DFW International Airport and are beginning our descent over the Metroplex. We will be on the ground in only seconds.
The wheels have just made contact with the run way. Welcome home. We have must to testify about. This is only the beginning.