Hi all,
The topic I get the most email about these days, especially within our house church network, is about some of the extremes of the 'grace' teaching. The beliefs of some in hyper-grace can include:

1)    The gospels aren't for today, they are Old Testament, so have no relevance. (They are 'the law')
2)    I John wasn't written for us today, in particular, I John 1:9 - I don't have to confess sin.
3)    Related to #2; Sin doesn't exist anymore due to Jesus/cross, only grace exists.
4)    Therefore I don't have to be accountable to anyone, don't have to apologize or confess sin/wrong, for
there is no such thing as sin any longer because Jesus took it out of the way.
5)    Hell either doesn't exist, is misunderstood, or all people down through history will one day end up in heaven - because of grace.

"Everybody complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it" - Charles Dudley Warner
The usual situation I hear about is that someone has gone around and around in a discussion with a hyper-grace believer on the subject, ending in a stalemate, hurt feelings, exasperation, and often broken relationships.

But Jesus' pattern was not to go round and round with the Pharisees or Sadducees, rather just teach what the Word says and let them decide. So here is what the Word says about grace. You decide its validity.

Grace and truth
Paul's writing follows the pattern we see throughout the New Testament, expounding on something the gospels state, in this case John 1:14: The Word became flesh and lived among us, full of grace and truth. Also verse 17: The law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ

Grace is the favor of God we've received and includes the work of the cross. Truth is the application of grace. Truth is the 'vital' or living demonstration of grace in our lives. Thus Jesus was full of grace and truth.

Think of it this way - you may have grace for someone, but unless you show them grace in action, all they will know is the idea of grace because you told them you had grace towards them. They don't know if you are telling the truth or not.

But when you act on that grace you are revealing the truth of it. Then that person can live in that grace and truth in relationship with you for they know your heart. Thus grace and truth are the embodiment of Christ Jesus and the means by which we know Him and the Father. He carried the grace the Father has towards us in His heart and lived the truth of it before mankind all the way to the cross to prove it so.

We see this same pattern of grace (invisible in the heart of God) linked with truth (revelation and application of that grace in our lives) throughout the New Testament. Or to put it another way, truth is imbedded in and inherently part of grace, for to have the favor of God is also to have the ability to live in that favor.

If all a person sees of grace is the unmerited favor part, they'll get off balance thinking there is no truth to be lived out, and life becomes very self-centered, very 'me' focused, very selfish. Grace is the legal work done on the cross, which allows the truth of the power of the resurrection to be lived out in daily life.

Grace teaches
"For the grace of God, which can save every man, has become known, and it teaches us to have no more to do with godlessness or the desires of this world, but to live here and now responsible, honorable and God-fearing lives. And while we live this life we hope and wait for the glorious appearing of the Great God and of Jesus Christ our Savior." (Phillips NT, Titus 2:11)

Here is grace and truth: Grace which can save every person is the favor part, teaching us is the truth part - the living and vital part in our daily lives. Grace and truth coupled once again, this time manifest in teaching us to live Godly lives. Grace teaches, which means a person in grace is teachable.

One sign of someone off balance in 'grace' is that they aren't teachable, unable to entertain another's thoughts on the subject without feeling personally threatened. Grace teaches us to live Godly lives. So if you see grace taught as a license for immoral behavior, it isn't grace - that person is deceived.

Grace is always linked with purpose
"He has saved us and called us to a holy life - not because of anything we have done, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given to us before times eternal." (II Timothy 1:9)

Notice grace - 'He has saved us...'

Notice truth; '...and called us to a holy life'.

Here is the rest of this verse: "Not because of anything we have done, but according to His own 'purpose and grace which was given to us before times eternal." Purpose is the living truth, grace is within His heart.

The purpose of God is always part of the grace of God. Noah received grace, building the boat was the purpose and truth - living that grace. Moses received grace, the truth and purpose was to lead Israel.   

Heart is established with grace
"Do not be carried away by diverse and strange teachings: For it is good that the heart is established by grace; not by ceremonial foods, which have no real spiritual benefit to those who eat them." Hebrews 13:9

The born-again heart of a person, their spirit, is established by grace. The point in this verse is that the heart isn't established by works, by ceremony, by ritual. Grace is the establishment of the heart, the truth presented is that grace is not found in ritual and ceremony.

Putting these elements together: Grace & truth, teaching, purpose, established hearts
Grace is allowing your child to pursue a driver's license. Embodied within that grace is truth - they need to learn how to handle a car, they need to learn the purpose for driving a car, they need to become established through life experience behind the wheel of a car. All these are elements of the grace you exhibited when you gave permission for them to pursue their license.

Behind the scenes, in the heavenly realms in 'times eternal', the Father God and Christ had grace in their hearts for yet-to-be-created mankind. But grace had to be more than a revelation of their favor towards us, it had to be empowerment to live out the benefits of salvation that grace provided. Grace and truth.

Pull one element out and you have..
Love cannot be broken down into its many elements, for to remove even one element of love destroys the very meaning of the word. To remove long suffering, hardly noticing when wronged, faithfulness, loyalty, devotion, fidelity, honor, respect, transparency, or any other element of love is to lose the meaning and impact of full-force love.

If we pull one element out and concentrate on that separate from the rest, we get dangerously off balance and jeopardize the object of our love entirely. For instance, if 'transparency' is pulled out of love, that transparency meant to be between a husband and wife, and one spouse becomes transparent with another person. When they transparently share things intended for their spouse with a friend, co-worker, or member of the opposite sex, they violate the love of their marriage. Many affairs and heartache have resulted in one spouse pulling one element of love to the neglect of the rest, and sharing that element with someone.

If they pull 'devotion' out of love to concentrate on that, they risk becoming a slave to the object of their devotion, unable to do anything but give themselves 100% to the object of their devotion. This will eventually result in at least burn-out, if not fatigue and the destruction of their own well-being, even if that devotion is towards their spouse, and certainly if towards work or children or a hobby or personal sin.

As it relates to grace
Similarly grace cannot be broken down into its many elements without destroying the very meaning of the word. To focus on unmerited favor while neglecting the truth of being taught to live Godly lives, live with purpose and remaining free from religious ritual and ceremony, is to open oneself to the idea they have so much favor that sin doesn't exist, they don't have to admit sin or error, and other errors.

This series is about understanding the multi-faceted elements of grace so we may be balanced in our understanding, holy in our lives, and further down the road towards being like Him.

I close with a quote from 150 +/- years ago, that you may know there is nothing new about this 'grace' movement at all - it even existed in Paul's time, but that is next week.  

"Men talk about free grace without having the slightest acquaintance with it from personal experience; instead of living in the element of grace, they have nothing but a mere head knowledge, or a superficial perception of it in their hearts; a complete break with the world, the flesh, and the devil, has not yet taken place; the conscience sleeps the sleep of death, and Christ is regarded as a mere substitute, whom the sinner thinks will make up the deficiency of his own fancied merit.

Thus the abuse of this doctrine becomes very easy. When the whole head, the whole heart is filled with false premises, how can we be surprised that they should lead to the most false—no, infamous conclusions? What wonder is it that such a man, who chatters about grace without having become acquainted with it from heartfelt experience, with the tears of repentance, should appropriate the kindness of this Redeemer to himself, in such a manner as to leave his heart and life unchanged." F. W. Krummacher (1796 - 1868)

More next week, blessings,

John Fenn
www.cwowi.org 
cwowiATaol.com

Hi all,
In 1965 the British band 'Herman's Hermits' had a hit song entitled 'Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter', which was on an album I bought in the late 1960's when I was about 10 or 12 years old. (I know, that dates me doesn't it? I turned 55 last month, gulp, yikes!)

Even now, I have Herman's Hermits 'Greatest Hits' on my iPhone as part of my 'Easy Listening' playlist. (watch and listen YouTube below - add by cwowi.eu)

We interrupt this email for an editorial, lol 
I've said this before, and I know it doesn't sound spiritual, but I often find it easier to pray in the Spirit and talk to the Father with some of the more mellow songs of the 1960's and 70's that I grew up with playing in the background, than I do with many modern Christian rock that either scream at me or have lyrics that tell me I'm lower than a snake's belly. (But there's a lot of great Christian worship too and I listen to a lot of that!)

But some Christian songs (even some 'worship' songs) are like they used to say of some country songs if you play them backwards - you get your truck back, you get your dog back, you get your girlfriend back, you get your job back...

Back to Big Picture, lol
You need to know that I've known 'Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter by heart since at least 1970, and all that time I thought the opening line went like this (in my best imitation of singer Peter Noone's heavy Manchester accent): "Mrs. Brown you've got a lovely daughter, girls who shop as her are something rare..."

The song is 2 minutes 24 seconds long, and for at least 43 years I've been happily singing along 'Mrs Brown you've got a lovely daughter, girls who shop as her are something rare...', never knowing why this teenage English boy is admiring some girl's shopping habits  - until last month.

That's when I was listening to the Herman's Hermits in the background while talking to the Father about the big picture and praying in the Spirit, when it happened.

Suddenly I see
I was receiving revelation about examples in the gospels where Jesus would shift attention away from the person or moment at hand to look at the big picture view for perspective, then zero in again on the issue - He clearly did that to place whatever crisis or failure of the person in the context of the big picture so they wouldn't lose heart.

And while I was thinking on that, this song started and the Father suddenly said, "It's like this" as He somehow turned my attention away from Him and onto the background music that now seemed much louder and suddenly very clear: 'Mrs. Brown, you've got a lovely daughter, girls as sharp as her are something rare..."

OH...Girls as SHARP AS HER are something rare, not girls who shop as her are something rare!

Carry over effect
Since I was 10 or 12 years old I'd been wondering about the shopping habits of some girl from Manchester, when all along he was singing about her being 'sharp' - which communicates intelligence, wit, attractiveness - NOT that she was a good shopper.

The Father used this as a teaching tool and made His point clear: The 2:24 second song is like our lives, and often in the opening lines of our lives we learn something wrong, yet because we learned it early we carry it with us all our lives. This causes us to make decisions and form opinions based on that wrong belief, which makes everything built on that belief a bit off and incorrect in nearly every area.

That wrong understanding in the opening line of the song tainted the whole song for me for 45+/- years! How often do we think something of ourselves or God that we lay down as a foundation, upon which we build this whole self-image or God-image, only years later we understand the 'lyrics' correctly!

Those famous Swiss cows
When Barb and her best friend Kathy were about 6 years old and had probably watched the movie 'Heidi', about a little Swiss girl, Kathy told her she wondered how cows in Switzerland could stand on those steep Swiss mountain sides. Without missing a beat Barb told her that Swiss cows have shorter legs on one side of their body than the other, which allows them to remain level while standing on steep mountains.

12 years later and now 18 years old, Barb and Kathy were roommates in a dorm at Indiana University, and they were talking about the theory of evolution and Kathy says, 'You know, like those Swiss cows growing short legs on one side to adapt to their environment.'.

Barb was amazed and started laughing and told her Swiss cows don't have short legs on one side - it was just a joke. But Kathy was in disbelief and shock that it wasn't true for she had believed that since Barb told her, and they spent the next hour looking up information on Swiss cows and their legs just to prove Barb was just joking 12 years earlier.

Big, small, big, small, big
Luke 22:14-23 is about the Last Supper and the big picture work of the cross. But in verse 24, the very next verse, the disciples did as human nature does, make an important big picture event all about them and what they think about it, which is 'small picture'. Who will be the greatest among them?

Jesus helps them get their eyes off 'self' and the small picture, to look at the big picture in verses 29-30. He tells them He gives them part of the kingdom the Father gave Him, and they will judge/administrate over the 12 tribes of Israel in the future kingdom - so stop jostling for position in the here and now.

Jesus never changes - He is still urging us to get eyes off self and onto the big picture. But...

Then Jesus turns to Peter to sandwich that mighty and amazing future of them judging the 12 tribes of Israel in the kingdom to come, with a revelation that Peter is first going to be sifted like wheat. "Satan has desired to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that when you have turned again, you will strengthen your brethren." (v31-32).

About a 1/2 step off
Peter, bless his heart and completely wrongly timed, tries to go big picture on Jesus: "I am ready to go with you both to prison and even to death!" But Jesus focuses again on the small picture: "I tell you Peter, you'll deny me 3 times before the rooster crows."

Looking at the big picture is not a denial of the facts nor neglecting the job at hand and issues that must be dealt with. Keeping the big picture in the back of our minds while dealing with the intense crisis of the 'small picture' keeps things in right perspective and gives us the strength and hope to continue on.

That's why Jesus felt comfortable sharing the small picture of Peter's denial of the Lord in context that he would one day sit on a throne administrating Israel in the future kingdom. He always places our problems in context of the big picture, while urging us to deal with whatever issue is at hand honestly and uprightly.

And then Jesus moves from Peter's small picture denial to the big picture again as He tells them essentially that He is leaving them so from this point forward they need to go out fully supplied. Then they go to the big picture events of the Garden of Gethsemane.

Back to those lyrics and cows
In the first century the teaching was that Messiah was coming to defeat the Romans and restore Israel to world prominence once again as in the days of David and Solomon. It is upon that foundational misunderstanding that many of Jesus' disciples followed Him. One of the original 12 was 'Simon the Zealot'.

The Zealot party was a political movement that wanted to incite the people to rise up and force the Romans out. It is believed by many that was the core reason Judas betrayed Jesus, trying to get Him to prove to everyone He was Messiah and put Him in a position to confront the Romans and then have to do miraculous things to defeat them.

Even in Acts 1:6 'when they all came together' right before the Ascension, as a group they asked: "Lord, is it now you are going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" They were STILL wondering if He was going to kick the Romans out at that time!

All they had seen and heard and done in the last 3 1/2 years with Jesus, now resurrected from the dead, did not undo they foundational 'wrong lyrics' of their life song they thought they knew so well. They still believed Swiss cows had legs on one side shorter than the other so to speak, even though they had been 3 1/2+ years with Jesus.

Are we any different?
No matter how long we walk with the Lord in this life we are still relearning the lyrics, relearning that many 'facts' aren't facts at all, but error and traditions of men. Paul said in I Corinthians 14:10 there are many voices in the world, and none without significance. The trouble is that we come to the Lord and His voice which we are following, with other voices still bouncing off the walls of our minds, emotions, and life experience.

Being a disciple means rearranging those other voices, those 'small picture' foundations upon which we've built a flawed life, and putting them in correct context and seen from the proper perspective of our future and our citizenship which is even now, in heaven. (Philippians 3:20)

Suddenly, the song makes sense. Suddenly you realize those cows are like every other cow out there. And suddenly you see the Father and the Lord Jesus for the goodness that is them, and the love story begins...

New subject next week - deal with the small picture from the vantage point of the big picture!

Blessings
John Fenn
www.cwowi.org [email protected]

Hi all,
I've been talking about how the Lord looks at our lives from a 'big picture' perspective, since He has invested in us for eternity. Unfortunately, we tend to take issues in our lives and make them larger than they should be in the face of eternity.

Just a moment
You don't have to live very long on planet earth before someone betrays and hurts you. From playground betrayals to high school soap opera-like romances, and on into adulthood, hurts and betrayals are something we've all experienced.

Ministry and church life can be particularly hurtful, and one day a woman in the traditional church we pastored hurt Barb deeply. She took things Barb told her in confidence and shared them openly with others. And it wasn't just the betrayal, what hurt Barb more was that this woman valued their friendship so lightly, as something not to be protected, but rather, disposable.

Having her words taken out of context and her heart bared open before immature people who reacted as immature people do, hurt Barb deeply. The woman never apologized, and though Barb forgave her, the emotions still hurt.

As she was still deeply hurting some weeks later, the Father broke into her brooding and said: "Don't turn a moment into a lifetime; It's only a moment."

(I have a cd/MP3 series on forgiveness that may help some. Jesus said forgiveness is a decision, not an emotion. A person can forgive a person yet take even years to work through the emotions - that process is covered in the series)

The Father's words set Barb free emotionally for she had become so focused on the 'little picture' that was the hurt and betrayal that she had forgotten the 'big picture'. This woman's actions proved she was not ready to be a true friend to Barb, and therefore forced Barb to let their relationship remain dormant until we all get to heaven and it will be 'safe' to pick up the relationship with her again.

Something Barb and I discussed at the time was the Father's words: "Don't turn a moment into a lifetime." That statement meant the Father was showing her she had a choice - it was her choice to carry that moment in time's hurt throughout her life, the small picture, or she could step back and see that moment compared to eternity, and let it go. Barb chose wisely, to see the hurt in a big picture framework, and it lifted as a result.

Left all?
In John 1:41-42 Peter is introduced to Jesus by Andrew, Peter's brother, with the claim 'We have found Messiah'. Nothing happened at that meeting, but Peter was left to consider the claim of Jesus as Messiah. The next time we see Peter and Jesus together is in Luke 5: 1-11. Peter and his business partners, brothers James & John, are loaning one of their boats to Jesus so He can speak to a crowd along the lake shore, taking advantage of the better acoustics of water.

Thanking them for the use of their boat, Jesus tells them to cast their nets 1 more time even though they caught nothing all night long, and gives them a huge load of fish, so much so both boats are nearly sunk and the nets were breaking in the process of hauling them aboard. 

Upon seeing this miracle Peter falls to his knees and says; "Leave me Lord, for I am a sinful man!", to which Jesus responds, "Don't be afraid, from now on you will catch men (rather than fish)." And they all gave up their business right then and there, and followed Jesus.

Peter, James, and John left the fishing business, leaving Zebedee - the father of James & John - now the senior partner, having to completely reorganize his business without his sons and their friend Peter.

I'm going fishing
Yet some 3 1/2 years later after the resurrection we once again see Peter, James & John together with others, returning to the fishing business. And just like it was before Peter saw his first miracle in Luke 5, they caught nothing all night long.

And once again Jesus is on the shore giving instructions to cast the net just 1 more time, and when they do so they cannot haul in the net due to the huge number of fish, yet this time the net didn't break. Peter is no dummy, in his deja vu experience he recognizes 'It is the Lord', and jumps into the water to swim to shore. (John 21)

I wonder if Peter saw the parable of the net breaking the first time in Luke 5 but not the 2nd, a picture of Peter hopelessly flawed before Jesus came into his life, the net tearing under the strain representing his broken, flawed character that kept allowing 'fish' to escape? (Sins, errors, faults while chasing maturity in God)

So here we are the 2nd time, this time the net doesn't break in a parable of Peter's maturity process the last 3 1/2 years with a view to the rest of his life, and Jesus asks Peter a big picture question: "Do you love me more than these?"

Not James, John, Philip or Nathanael
Some would suppose Jesus was asking Peter if he loved Him more than James & John and the others loved Him. Or perhaps asking Peter if he loved Him more than he loved his friends.

But that would be completely inconsistent with every other interaction between God and man from Genesis through The Revelation. At no time in the Word does God ever ask a comparative question involving people - do you love me more than your best friends love me? Do you love me more than you love your friend? Do you love me more than your spouse loves Me? 

In the Old Testament there are some comparisons made between serving idols versus serving the God of Israel, but never a question comparing one person's love for Him versus another's love for Him.

No, the context makes it clear Jesus is asking Peter if he loves Him more than fish and fishing. The 'these' are fish. Do you love me more than these fish we just ate, Peter? Do you love me more than your fishing business? Early on Peter had left the fishing business to follow Jesus - he had made a big picture decision.

Emotions and the big picture
Jesus once again asks him to make a big picture decision, and He asks that decision be founded upon deep love for Him, asking 3 times, "Do you love Me? Feed my sheep."

When the Lord asks us to make a big picture decision as he did here with Peter, notice it is made out of love for Him, and that he doesn't send us to a conference or therapist to work through the emotions of such a big decision.

For instance, in John 8:11 when the woman is caught in adultery and Jesus saves her from a horrible death by stoning, He simply says, "Go and sin no more", or "Go and leave your sin". He doesn't say to go see a counselor to deal with the 'soul ties' she incurred. He doesn't tell her to pray over a generational sin that opened the door to lust that allowed her to enter into the affair. He doesn't sooth her emotions - He just says to stop sinning - break it off and move on with your life!

He asks her for a big picture decision - make decisions based on your destiny, not based on the short term.

So when Jesus asks Peter for a big picture decision founded upon love for Him, He doesn't go into detail soothing Peter's emotions and answering questions about how to turn the business once and for all over to Zebedee, or to sell the business and boats. He doesn't tell Peter how to tell his wife and kids they are probably going to have to give up their home and live out of a suitcase much of the rest of their lives, and most likely move out of Israel.

He does tell Peter something about the ramifications of making the big picture decision: "When you are old others will bind you and stretch out your hands and take you where you don't want to go", thus signifying John 21:18-19 says, that Peter will die by crucifixion.  

He always shows us the finished vision
He doesn't tell us how to work through the emotions of a big picture decision, whether that be Barb returning a moment in time to merely a moment in time rather than a lifetime, or Peter making a decision knowing that when he is old he will die by crucifixion. He just puts it out there for us - Will you do this?

Saul of Tarsus persecuted the body of Christ in Jerusalem, but Acts 8:1 tells us every single believer in Jesus left Jerusalem except for the apostles. So Saul had to expand the hunting down of these people to other areas, which took him to Damascus one day.

The Lord wasn't ready to allow persecution to expand yet, and so interrupts Saul's trip by appearing to him before he can reach the city gates. He had been dealing with Saul for some time, because the Lord comments to him: "It's hard (for you) to kick against the ox-goad".

The ox-goad was a pointed stick with which a person walked behind an ox and jabbed him to keep him going a certain direction. The Word was the pointy stick the Lord had been using to try to get Saul of Tarsus in the right direction, but like a stubborn animal, he kept 'kicking' against the Lord's jabs. Essentially the Lord appeared to Saul and said 'Give up!'.

The Lord tells Saul to get up and go into the city, where it will be told what he must do. At that point the Lord appears to a another disciple and tells him to tell Saul some things, and mentions this: "He is a chosen instrument to proclaim my name before the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel, and I will show him how much suffering he must endure for my name."

The testimony of Saul of Tarsus is found in Acts 9, 22, & 26, with Paul adding or subtracting various details each time depending on who he is talking to. But it is clear the Lord showed him the big picture, the mature ministry, and the consequences of making such a decision.

He doesn't help us work through the emotions directly, He puts the decision out there, shows us the cost to make a big picture decision, and then leaves it up to us to decide.

Ages to come
A couple in our church were picked out of the crowd and prophesied over every time a guest speaker came to our church, and given the same prophetic word about them going to nations to teach people the Word.

Yet one of them got into adultery and the marriage ended in divorce.

During a visitation when the Lord was teaching me about prophecy, I asked Him about this couple, saying, "Isaiah 55 says your Word doesn't return to you without accomplishing the thing it was sent out for, so what about all the words over this couple? How will they come to pass?"

He said: "Some words spoken in this age won't be fulfilled until the age to come." I said, "I've never heard that before, I need chapter and verse!" He kindly responded: "There are many prophecies in the Old Testament that leap over this age to speak of the millennial age to come, and you believe them, so why is it so hard for you to believe that some prophecies spoken in this age will be fulfilled in the next?"

You see, God's Word in our lives WILL come to pass. He shows us the mature vision, the completed work, and then sin and life happen and small picture decisions are made, until one day we look back at how we have failed Him and wonder how we will ever be granted entrance to heaven. Or if we make it we think, we will hear how sorely disappointed and perhaps even angry with us He was our whole life.

Yet nothing in our lives has caught Him by surprise, and when He speaks a Word, a vision, an invitation to a big picture decision to us, He did so having seen all the detours and failings in our lives.

His big picture Word WILL come to pass in your life. If not in this life, then maybe 100 years from now, maybe 400 years from now, maybe 900 years from now - but whether it comes to pass in this life or the next, know that in the big picture we are already in eternity. We don't die and THEN pass into eternity. You have already started living forever.

This life is only a moment, don't make it a lifetime.

More next week, blessings,
John Fenn
www.cwowi.org [email protected]

Hi all,
I've been talking about how the Father and Lord want us to see the big picture instead of focusing on details which lead us into a downward spiral spiritually and emotionally.

The Father's response
I was helping pull the pants up on my son Chris, who is mentally 4 years old though physically 33, as he sat on the toilet, now ready to be helped out to his chair in the living room. My mind was still reeling over his accident 2 weeks before, the very difficult but productive first dental visit to stabilize the 4 teeth he had broken off and jammed back into his gums during his fall, and all the ensuing details to be planned and scheduled.

I was thinking about how I owed people phone calls, Skype calls, Facebook Instant Messenger responses, email and all the studying and writing I had to do. I was thinking of teaching series, making more video classes and writing thank you notes. I was thinking about mowing the grass, planting the garden, the various spring projects, and how all the above lay neglected while I (and Barb) took care of Chris.

All these things and so much more were whirling around my mind and emotions in no particular order as I said; "Father, how can I do all the things in ministry I need to do when things like this happen to Chris? Nearly everything in ministry stops to care for him...." when the Father broke in to my outpouring:

"Chris IS your ministry!"
That stopped me in my tracks, the revelation of what He was saying sinking in. Words that you and I speak are containers of thoughts and emotions, but we, being mere humans, are limited in our ability to accurately communicate to one another all we are thinking and feeling when we speak.

Learn to listen for the echo
But the Father doesn't have the frailty of human limitations, and so often when He speaks just a few words, they carry a book's worth of His thoughts and emotions, all downloaded at once upon the hearing of His words. That's what happened to me. As you become accustomed to this trait of the Father, you learn to listen what for lack of a better term, is the 'echo' of His voice long after His words ceased.

It is within that echo, that silence after His voice trails off, where the revelation of His deeper thoughts and emotions can be heard - not just felt, but heard, if you listen ever so closely and quietly, lingering in His presence that permeates the moment.

Behind each of His words and sentences is something deeper, and it is within that echo that we peel back layers behind the words like peeling outer petals of a blooming flower ever so tenderly, each petal revealing yet another one still deeper in. So it is when lingering in that echo.

"When you are in Me, I have the whole of you in Me. Chris is not one compartment and ministry another compartment and your time with Barb yet another compartment. I have the whole of you, therefore your life is one. Neither ministry nor Chris can be separated and compartmentalized from the rest of you. Chris is your ministry as much as raising up home based churches or talking to someone in Europe on Skype."

Out with the old
I was horrified at myself, for what I had been saying to Him was part of the old traditional church thinking, and I didn't know any of that old, non-scriptural thinking was still in me as it relates to 'church'. That thinking says, "The events of my life are keeping me from doing the ministry God wants me to do. If I could just get this part of my life in order THEN I could do what God wants." Essentially, that is what my mind and emotions were saying to the Father, flawed and in error though it was.

That kind of thinking says, 'If I could just get out of debt THEN I could do what God has for me.' That kind of thinking says, "If they hadn't done that to me at church I'd be doing what God has for me right now." and "If I hadn't backslidden all those years and missed God, I'd be doing what God wants me to do."

When we are in the Father by virtue of being in Christ, our life is ministry - remember the Greek word 'ministry' is 'service'. We serve God at work and play, at home and in our hobby, around the dinner table or fixing a car. We serve our families, friends, people we don't even know through acts of kindness and just being here on planet earth. 

Because we are in Christ we are all a royal priesthood 24/7 no matter how we earn a living, no matter our age, gender, or station in life. We are wholly and completely in Him as the Bible says - our old lives are dead and gone and the life we now live, we live in Christ. (Colossians 2:2-4) We are wholly in Him.

Mentally being 'in Christ' or 'in Him' was something I knew - there are over 100 references to being 'in Him' or 'in Christ' in the New Testament. Mentally I knew that, but this hit home hard.

All I could say in response to all the Father said was, "Father, I'm so sorry. I didn't know any of that thinking was still in me. I ask just one thing, let people see your grace when they see our lives, let them see grace."

Little thing or big picture?
I had been doing the very thing I'm writing about NOT doing. I had narrowed my focus to the temporary pressures of this life, getting my eyes off the big picture of the fact the whole of me is in the Father through Christ. I had been like Peter who walked on the water to Jesus, then shifted his attention to the wind and waves and began sinking. The Father's statements were a hand extended to raise me up once again to the big picture.

The largest construction project in the universe
In Psalm 56:8 David says: "...You put my tears in your bottle. Have you not written them in your book?"

This verse says the Father somehow took David's tears and spiritually put them in a bottle in heaven, and wrote them in a book in heaven. That sounds like poetry except for the fact the Bible has many statements that say the Father translates earthly pains and sorrows, offerings and prayers, into heavenly material.

In Acts 10:4 an angel appears to the Roman, Cornelius: "Your prayers and your offerings have come up as a memorial before God." Memorials are something that stand as a record for all to see, of something or someone of note. Somehow the Father turned Cornelius' offerings and prayers into a memorial in heaven.

In Revelation 5:8 the apostle John sees bowls of incense coming up before the Father, which, he says, "Are the prayers of the saints." How He takes prayers uttered from our heart and turns them into incense in heaven is beyond our understanding, but He does.

What Jesus is preparing
In I Corinthians 3:12 Paul says though Jesus is the foundation stone, we must watch how we build on that foundation; gold, silver, precious stones, or wood, hay and stubble. The last 3 being a result of envy, strife and divisions that plagued the Corinthians at the time.

He likens earthly envy, strife, and division to spiritual wood, hay, and stubble - so what qualities make up the gold, silver, and precious stones he says to build with? Walking in love, joy, peace, gentleness, meekness... and other character traits of a maturing believer are those precious things built upon the Foundation Stone.

In I Peter 2: 4-8 Peter rightly states that Jesus is the Corner Stone, and says, 'But you are living stones, built up into a spiritual house, a royal priesthood...'

Do we get that? Each of us is a living stone, being built up into a spiritual house. Just as Jesus' life was transformed into the cornerstone of heaven, each of us is a similar living stone, each contributing to the construction of heaven. Now you might think that is symbolism, but look at the walls of the heavenly Jerusalem: "The wall of the city had 12 foundations, and on them were the names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb." (Revelation 21:14)

Each tear, each right decision, each prayer, each sacrifice unseen by man but seen by the Father and Lord - it all gets transformed into heavenly material.

The bride is the body of Christ, right?
What do you get when you get all those tears and offerings and prayers and right decisions recorded in heaven? What do you get when you compile the lives of millions of believers down through the ages who have overcome great hardship, or left strife, envy, and division in order to walk in love, joy, and peace, so that those gold, silver, and precious stones might become part of their heavenly material?

You get the largest construction project in the universe. "Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband...'Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb....and he showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like jasper, as clear as crystal..." (Revelation 21)

This is the ultimate 'big picture'. It is assurance that our lives are not for nothing. That in Christ all we have gone through and overcome, all those unseen hardships seen only by God who knows the heart, are transformed into the heavenly Jerusalem. We as a body are the bride, and our lives are transformed into the material of the holy city, which is therefore also the bride, the Lamb's wife. Amazing grace!

As we pray, overcome, cry, and make right decisions because they are right no matter the cost, He takes all that and builds our part of the heavenly Jerusalem. As the Lord told Barb that day after she was first saved and saw the roughest of building blocks that is her home in heaven: 'As you give us more to build with, we will build it.'

No matter what we are going through, we must look up at the big picture. It is glorious!

Blessings,
John Fenn
www.supernaturalhousechurch.org     [email protected]

Hi all,
I'm looking at passages that tell us the Father and Lord are looking at the big picture in our lives, rather than zeroing in on every little thing in our lives.

Lord's Supper and the marriage proposal
In Jesus' day, when a prospective groom wanted to become engaged to a woman he went to her house with a cup of wine. Her father and her brothers (as witnesses) then negotiated the engagement with the groom. Usually this negotiation included the dowry, the groom's plan over the next year to prepare a home for her, the marriage ceremony details, and a contract was entered into as a result, breakable only by divorce.

When details were set the woman was called and the groom's cup of wine was placed before her as the groom said this:

"You believe in God, believe also in me. My father's house has many rooms, and I'm going to prepare a place for you, then I'll return and bring you with me that where I am you may be."

It was a common custom of the day as it is today in many parts of the world, for a groom to build a room onto his father's house for them to live in, thus this statement. If the woman accepted the groom's proposal she would drink the wine to seal the contract as a point of remembrance, while also looking forward to her wedding day.

In John 14:1-4 Jesus quoted these words to describe Himself going to the cross and then to His Father's 'house' to prepare a place for us - the big picture. He therefore asks us to drink the wine of the Last Supper, which was done just before He said this as acceptance of our betrothal to Him, while also looking at the present through the eyes of the future marriage.

Even with the cross looming the next morning, He was pointing us to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.

This is why He had also made the statement that no man knows the day of His return - in the custom of the day the timing was set by the groom's father, eagerly keeping the secret of the timing of the wedding within himself as a surprise for the couple. The groom's father withheld permission until the room the groom was preparing for his (His) bride was was completed, as well as the bride's own preparations completed. Then the Father gave permission for the groom to collect his (His) bride.

Secret message imbedded
Jesus ended His time with the disciples with a command to remember Him at the Last Supper, looking backwards, yet imbedded within was a quote from the marriage custom of the day, looking forward.

What Satan and religion and we ourselves do, is separate our thoughts from the big picture to concentrate on the present 'small' things, to our own hurt. Throughout the New Testament the writers couple dealing with the present by looking at it through the eyes of a certain and eternal future.

Count with me now
Even as John closes the life of Jesus with coded talk of a future marriage ceremony, he started his gospel with a coded reference to a future marriage ceremony as well, through the earthly wedding at Cana. Within this story is an imbedded message about our heavenly future.

The first chapter of the Gospel of John details 4 days one after the other, the only time he does that in his whole gospel. But there is a reason.

John 1:19 starts out saying 'And this is the record of John (Baptist)...and continues through verse 28, which concludes day 1. Day 1 is when John the Baptist is asked if he is the Messiah, which he denies.

Verse 29 says 'The next day', starting day 2. This is when John said, 'Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world'. (Note; He took away the sin of the world, not sins. He dealt with the root sin not our individual sins, so that by paying for the sin of the world all our 'little sins' are automatically paid for.)

Verse 35 says, 'The next day', starting day 3, which is when Andrew introduces Peter to Jesus.

Verse 43 says, 'The day following', starting day 4 which continues to verse 51. This day Jesus invited Philip and Nathanael to become His disciples.

So we see that John 1:19-51 there are 4 days one after the other detailed for us - but why?

The answer is seen in the next verse, John 2:1 which says, "On the third day (3 days later) a wedding took place in Cana of Galilee..." This is where He turned water into wine.

In other words, we see Jesus' activities for 4 days as detailed above, then we don't see Him 2 days, then we suddenly see Him on day 7, the wedding at Cana. 

The 7th day
John is giving us a clue to look at the big picture, not just the details of a week in the Lord's life. In prophetic language, a day is as 1,000 years, so look at this week that way: 4 days, or 4,000 years, Christ is seen by mankind - the 4,000 years between Adam and Jesus' ministry.

Then for 2 days or 2,000 years He is not seen. This is the time we are living in, after the Ascension but before His 2nd coming. That is 6 days or 6,000 years total.

The last day, the 7th, is a wedding and marriage supper - the 7,000th set of years, which answer to His coming and the Millennial reign of 1,000 years on the earth.

(The 6 water pots with water that was turned to wine is a picture too. They were used for washing as the text indicates, yet they were turned to wine which is a type of the blood of Christ washing us clean. Also, 6 is the number of man, or 6,000 years, showing how Christ was active in redemption throughout man's history.)

The apostle John is led to start his gospel with a natural event of a wedding, yet imbedded a message to us to look up, look future, look at the big picture, not just at the part of life we are dwelling on now. While dealing with the here and now also remember to look up to the future event of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. This helps us understand our present lives forge within us qualities of eternal value.

When Barb....
When Barb was first born again, she believed on the Lord in the midst of a very dramatic set of circumstances, but that is her story to tell. Yet it serves as the backdrop to her need to know the Lord was real, that He had a plan and future for her, and out of His willingness to give her assurance He gave her this experience:

She was in an upstairs room in her house late one afternoon, looking west through some trees at the ever lowering sun and the light playing through the waving branches and leaves. Suddenly the whole wall of her house disappeared, the natural world disappeared, and she was standing in heaven with Someone she assumes was the Lord, on her right side.

She was so captivated by what she saw it never occurred to her to turn and look at Him. What she saw was a stone rectangular block house set in a yard, with flowers and plants and birds and butterflies around, the crude stone house standing starkly plain in the midst of all that color and activity. She says the blocks of stone were similar in construction to the pyramids, yet with cut outs where a door and windows would go, yet just a rectangular collection of block stones forming the outline of a house.

She asked 'What am I looking at?', He said, "This is your home in heaven. As you give us more to work with, we'll build it for you." And with that, the vision disappeared and she was back in her room.

The largest construction project in the universe
The largest construction project in the universe is the subject next week - and it is both personal in nature, and heavenly in scope. Whatever we are going through in this life there is a deeper meaning to be found, an exhortation to look up and look future, to look at the big picture. Until next week, blessings,

John Fenn
www.cwowi.org [email protected]