Hi all,
Once in a while I get in the mood for a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast, and this was one of those days. We had some Irish 'Steel Cut' oatmeal on the shelf, and though the expiration date on the box had already passed, I didn't see any worms crawling around in it, so I fixed a big bowl, lol.
After pouring some milk on top and mixing it around it didn't take me long to devour the whole bowl along with 4 slices of hot buttered toast. I thought it tasted rather funny, it had a tart, sharp taste to it, sour, but I figured that was because the Irish version of oatmeal must be like that.
Knowing Barb and knowing she would want to sample whatever I was having (see the first in this series), when I made my oatmeal I had fixed enough for her to have a bowl once she was up and around. She poured it into a bowl, poured a little milk on top and mixed it in, sat down, put a big spoonful in her mouth...and then spit it out right away: "Yuck! That oatmeal has gone bad. Oh, that's just horrible. It's rancid. Throw it out; I hope you didn't eat any! It could make you sick, you need to eat something else!"
I replied; "Too late, I already had a big bowl. I thought it tasted funny but poison can't hurt me since I didn't know it was spoiled - so lesson learned, no harm done. I guess that funny taste wasn't because it was a different brand." She ended up eating a cold bowl of cereal instead. I went on about my day just fine.
Old thoughts that need to be taken to the cross and poison
I've shared when Peter told the Lord that He should not go to the cross, Jesus told him he was thinking man's thoughts, not God's thoughts, and he needed to crucify those thoughts and take up God's thoughts.
Last week I shared how the first thoughts one should crucify based on revelation are those of self-hatred, as the command to love God and love our neighbor as ourselves cannot be done if we don't first love ourselves.
I shared how some believers never really received that revelation before jumping ahead to 'deeper' truths. If they rush ahead seeking and receiving revelation on other subjects in the faith before truly knowing the Father's revelation of love for them, due to the flawed foundation they can get off balance in their faith.
Like putting together a big spiritual breakfast, they may assemble spiritual toast, spiritual milk, spiritual oatmeal, yet never realize 1 of those elements is poison mixed in with the others. On the outside they look spiritually healthy, but in reality they are including poison.
Once I have those revelations, what is next?
Peter stated in II Peter 1, starting in verse 5: 
"...applying your diligence in exercising your faith to develop moral excellence, and in moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, steadfastness, and in your steadfastness, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly affection (love), and in your brotherly affection, develop Christian love (agape') that is to learn to unselfishly seek the best for others and to do things for their benefit."
Notice that 'moral excellence' is the first character trait to be developed after those basic revelations of Jesus is Christ and that we are unconditionally loved. 
A person who knows Jesus is Lord and we will each stand before Him one day to give account of our lives, and knows He loves them unconditionally, will no longer want to steal, lie, cheat to get their way. Moral excellence is therefore the first character trait to add to one's faith after those revelations. 
Where old thoughts die and new thoughts take life
Let us say a newly born again teenager WITH those amazing revelations energizing their thoughts meets up with his old friends who want to go shop lifting (stealing from stores) after school. Right away this young man is faced with being accountable to Jesus, and that because he loves himself and knows he and his friends are so loved, enters into a battle in the mind about going out on a minor crime spree with his old friends.


There no longer remains any motivation for stealing even though he could use a new pair of shoes. The drive to steal isn't there so he must develop the backbone to tell his friends 'no', and be wiling to be made fun of, to be called names, to be ostracized from the group. He is adding moral excellence to his faith by crucifying old thoughts to allow new thoughts to become his own.


What about the teenage girl who was abused as a child 
She came to the Lord as a last attempt at happiness and discovered God is real and He loves her, but she struggles with loving herself. She can't forgive herself and therefore has a hard time believing He loves her.


But in times of study of the Word, and more so, in times of worship and prayer getting to know the Word Himself rather than merely ink on a page Word which flows by extension from Him, she gradually stops fighting those new thoughts that she is loved unconditionally, and lets them fill her mind with assurance.
And so when on a date with a boy who wants to have sex with her, in times past she would give in because down inside she was hoping he would truly love her for who she was, unconditionally, hoping the next boy would be 'the one' to fill the void inside her heart. 

But now she has that revelation that Jesus is Christ and that she is unconditionally loved. She is no longer seeking to have a void in her heart filled with love, she has it already. Gone is the desire to have sex to win over the boy who may be 'the one' to fill that void - and she tells this boy 'no', and she means it. She is adding moral excellence to her faith by crucifying her old thoughts in order to think God's thoughts.
The business owner
This person owns a small plumbing business and for years when the opportunity has presented itself, he has asked the customer for cash payment, which he pocketed without reporting it as income, thereby side-stepping the filing of paperwork and tax payments. 

But now he is born again, and knows he is loved unconditionally. He starts to look at customers differently, with the knowledge that Christ is in him and when he fixes that toilet or sink it is Christ in him fixing that person's plumbing, and he is His hands extended to do good for people. 
One day he is about to ask for cash payment if they have it, and he stops. It is as if Jesus is watching from within him, and in truth, He is. Suddenly the revelation of his corruption hits him hard, and he tells the customer if they want to use their card or write a check that is fine too. He is adding moral excellence by crucifying old thoughts on how he runs his business, and based on revelation thinks new thoughts and ways.

Here is where the poison enters...
If each person above decides to go against the revelation they have received, and against what they know to do and what they know God is dealing with them about, to add to their faith moral excellence, their conscience becomes seared over like a piece of meat being grilled. That searing seals in the juices, the life, and doesn't let it manifest outward to their lives, bringing God's Life to their life.

Not only is their conscience seared a bit, but by allowing a little stealing, a little promiscuity, a little tax evasion, they are allowing themselves to consume a little poison along with that which is good and healthy for their spiritual life. They look like they are great Christians to all who see them, but on the inside they are allowing a poisonous tree to grow alongside their faith.


This is where they start to get off balance because by ignoring the Spirit of Truth inside them, each time they do this they sear their conscience just a little bit more, losing a bit of sensitivity to the Holy Spirit telling them x behavior is wrong, and that leads to insensitivity when x teacher or x teaching is off balance...and they start to get off the path.


At some point they either rise up and do the right thing, killing man's thoughts on their internal cross which is what Jesus told Peter to do with his thoughts of Jesus not going to the cross. Or they keep a little of man's thoughts alongside great teachings they receive along the way. Often like me accidentally ingesting poison oatmeal, God's grace is there preventing no eternal harm IF they see their error, and correct it. If not, they will reap what they've sown and suffer accordingly, though grace is always there if they turn to Him...


And...I've run out of room today, we'll pick it up here next week. Until then, blessings,
John Fenn
www.cwowi.org and email me at cwowi@aol.com

Hi all,
There are 2 benchmark events in my life that confirmed something I had tried to keep quiet, crammed into the back of my mind for years, but now must admit: I am getting old. 
 
The first came unexpectedly when Barb and I were driving down the highway with the sun to my side, perfectly silhouetting my profile to Barb. Suddenly she started laughing. Actually it started as a chuckle, then escalated into a laugh, and suddenly I realized she was laughing AT me. 
 
"Honey, I don't want to be cruel, but you have a hair sticking straight up on the tip of your nose", she managed through her giggles. I thought no big deal, what harm is a little "peach fuzz", I am a mammal after all. That image was quickly shattered by her reply, trying to be as gentle as possible: "No honey, you look like a Rhinoceros." Horrified, I gently brought my right index finger to hover over the top of my nose and sure enough, like some weed that had escaped the chopping blade, stood a hair straight and tall. 
 
To me I had a giant redwood on the tip of my nose. I forget where we were going but it was a public meeting, and suddenly I felt like a teenager just before a date and a giant pimple suddenly pops up for all to see. 
 
The second event was when I was getting my haircut - a lady named Viva is where Chris and I go to get our haircuts here in town. She is always kind to Chris, who loves her car magazines in the waiting area, and she always allows him to take one home. When my haircut was nearly complete, Viva asked: "Would you like me to trim your eyebrows?" 
 
That did it. I am now officially old. Rhino hairs, eyebrows needing trimmed like an overgrown yard, the last facade of telling myself I was still young crumbled like a house of cards. What's next, ear hairs? Nope, too late, I'd been dealing with those for years. I am old! 
 
OK John, now that I'm grossed out, where are you going with this?
I'm 57 as I write this. I've known the Father and Lord since I was 16. When I was 16 it seemed like the highway of holiness was an 8 lane super highway with rubber guard rails - and I wandered at times from one side to the other of that super highway of grace. Today, forty plus years later, it seems the highway of holiness is a footpath on a high mountain ridge with 1,000 foot (304m) drops on both sides.
 
The major character issues were worked out long ago, but the fine tuning never stops. Like hair popping up in places I don't think hair should grow, the Father is always revealing something growing in my heart for me to tame, shave off, or pluck out by the roots. Like rhino hair they are minor things that usually only He and I would notice (and Barb too for some reason, lol), but tiny as they are, once pointed out they get my full attention and seem SO huge.  
 
About that 8 lane superhighway with rubber guard rails
I shared last week that in context, 'taking up your cross' according to Jesus, is putting to death man's thoughts in favor of thinking God's thoughts about a given person or situation. Taking up your cross is not a hardship or pressure of circumstances; rather it is the killing of old thoughts in favor of making God's thoughts your own.
 
What are the first earth-thoughts after a person is born again and venturing on that 8 lane superhighway of grace that should be killed in favor of thinking God's thoughts? The earth-thoughts are "No one loves me unconditionally just as I am" and replaced with the revelation from the Father you are unconditionally loved, and He has a purpose fueled by grace for your life. 
 
IF a Christian goes on to other revelations BEFORE knowing by revelation direct from Him that they are unconditionally loved, they will have a flawed foundation and will often become performance based always trying to please the Ogre God in the sky, rather than grace based walking in peace with their Father. 
 
But many Christians are like a man who focuses on his own spiritual 'rhino hair'
...while forgetting the larger need to shave their face in the morning. They focus on one doctrine after the other to the point their theology is as confused as my eyebrows growing all over the place, while forgetting the larger need to comb their hair. They major on the minor things so that all they see is the minor, and are blind to the major things.
 
When I was born again and then Spirit-filled in the charismatic renewal of the 1970's, there were as many teachings and goofy manifestations of the Spirit (so called) you could ever want. As a result, many people became 'specialists' in things like personal prophecy, deliverance, shepherding others, inner healing, etc. 
 
But in each case of people that I knew personally, they had not slowed down long enough to kill their thoughts of self-dislike or insecurities to replace those thoughts with the Father's thoughts about them. 
 
They never received that revelation before skipping ahead to 'deep' things. As a result we now have millions of Christians who don't know their Father, yet can tell you all about their specific field of spiritual study - inner healing, Messianic, end times - pick a teaching and they know THAT but not the Father, at least not well. 
 
They need to slow down, and with all their heart get to know the Father by focusing on Him and talking to Him, allowing His revelation of His great love to become so real it replaces their own thoughts of themselves.
 
For me, after my dad left when I was 11, telling us "I'm divorcing your mother and I'm divorcing you kids. There won't be any birthdays, holiday, ball games, nothing.", any healthy love of self I had wilted like newly planted sapling in the heat of summer. 
 
By the time I was 16 and my friend Janny told me she knew the God behind the Sunday morning liturgy, I didn't love myself, didn't think I'd be good at anything, didn't care about school or life. I entered and then dropped out of everything because I just didn't care anymore about them or myself any longer.
 
The highest command is to love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. It is impossible to love your neighbor as yourself if you don't love yourself. That means loving yourself because you are unconditionally loved is essential to growing in Christ. 
 
These are often the first thoughts a person must put to death on their own personal cross:
I hate myself, I am unworthy, I have no purpose, no one loves me unconditionally, God loves me but doesn't like me. It took me about a year of constant time with the Father, study in the Word looking for every instance in the New Testament of the Father being the Source of Love with a Plan, before His thoughts about me became my thoughts. I did it by every time my thoughts would turn inward against myself, I answered right back with what I knew the Father had said about me and thought about me.
 
That battle to crucify those thoughts required (for me anyway) the whole width of that 8 lane super highway. Those thoughts did not go easily into the night, but I kept coming back to scriptures to force myself to think God's thoughts, and caught myself each time I started to think how I hated myself. Here is one passage that helped kill my earth thoughts on that cross: 
Ephesians 3:14-20:
"For this cause I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that He would give you...to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in your inner man...that you being rooted and grounded in (unconditional, agape') love may be able to comprehend with all the saints the width, length, depth and height and to know the love of Christ which is beyond knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God."
 
You must be "rooted and grounded in unconditional love" BEFORE you can know that which is beyond knowing by natural means, the love of Christ. IF you know that love you can be filled with all the fullness of God! Isn't that what we want, to have all we can have of Him?! 
 
And I'll pick it up there next week, until then, blessings,
John Fenn
www.cwowi.org and email me at cwowi@aol.com

Hi all,
I'm starting with a confession of sin, something I've had to deal with over the years that only recently have I overcome, and that overcoming is due to something the Father asked me. 
 
Back when Barb and I were high school age and were at a restaurant, she would often ask if she could try a bite of what I had ordered, and of course I didn't mind - she was my girlfriend after all. She would try to return the favor by asking if I wanted to try some of hers, but I would nearly always reply 'No thanks', which meant in man-terms, "If I wanted what you ordered I would have ordered it."
 
Here it comes
Somewhere through the years of marriage she stopped asking permission to sample what I ordered and would just reach over with her fork and take a bite. I came to resent that. At some point years ago I closed the smorgasbord and made my plate off limits to her wandering appetite. 
 
She apologized saying she didn't realize how much it bothered me, I explained that it did, and she learned to ask permission, which I have always gladly given. We share appetizers and desserts, but there was always something about the meal itself.
 
And so it was this summer coming back from a ministry trip we found ourselves at a regional restaurant called "Freddy's", which is known for very thin hamburger patties grilled to where the edges are nicely browned...and their ice cream...yum. Barb had ordered a bacon cheeseburger and I had ordered their double patty "California burger", which is a direct reference to the California based "In-N-Out Burger" chain's burger with special sauce, and Freddy's version is very, very close to theirs.
 
As we were eating, Barb commented mine looked good and I replied it was delicious. She was testing the waters I realize now, but at the time I didn't know I was being set up. After an appropriate amount of silence and after we'd each had another bite of our own sandwiches she asked, "May I have a bite of yours?" 
 
When she said that anger started rising in me, but in the split second my blood pressure started to rise the Father broke right through the moment asking me this: 
 
"I know you'd take a bullet for her, laying down your life for her; So why is it hard for you to give her a bite of your cheeseburger?"
 
In that moment my heart was opened for me to see it as the Father saw it, and I was horrified. I judged myself as a lifetime of 'protecting my territory eating' flashed by my eyes in between that 1st and 2nd second after she asked. In that split second I replied to Barb: "Sure, have all you want", and meant it. I had no idea protecting my food as mine, all mine, through the years was a heart-issue. 
 
Barb has suggested I became territorial about my food because after my dad left money was tight for mom with 4 kids to feed, and we each protected what was on our plates because there may not have been any second helpings. I don't know why, but I didn't like what I saw in my heart that day.
 
Laying down your life, picking up the cross?
I would guess that most Christians have wondered if someone burst through the door with a gun, line everyone up, and ask if they were a Christian, and then kill all Christians one by one, if they would have the bravery to NOT deny the Lord in that moment. 
 
That kind of situation used to be hypothetical until in recent years that exact thing has happened in various places around the world, from ISIS controlled areas to a college campus in Oregon. 
 
However, laying down your life for someone doesn't begin and end at the point of a gun. No, you lay down your life in little ways every day, from sharing a bite of a cheeseburger to mowing the elderly neighbor's yard even though you are very tired after a long day of work, to choosing good thoughts about a person as you pray for them when you want to yell good and hard at them. 
 
How taking up your cross is laying down your life - and what it means
In Matthew 16:16 Peter exclaimed Jesus is the Son of God, and Jesus told him the Father had shown that to him. After the revelation He is God's Son was made known, Jesus goes on to tell them in v21 He would die at the hands of the leaders and rise the third day. Peter took Him aside and rebuked the Lord, saying "...it shall never happen to you!"
 
In v23-24 the Lord responded: "Get behind me Satan! You are a stumbling block to me, for you do not mind the things of God, but you mind the things of man. If anyone wants to follow me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.." 
 
The cross He is talking about is Peter's ideas for Jesus' life versus the Father's ideas for Jesus' life.
 
How do you lay down your life?
Peter didn't want Jesus to go to the cross, Jesus told him to crucify those thoughts of man.  Therefore taking up the cross means stripping yourself of your own earth-based and flesh-based opinions about a person or situation, and change your thoughts to God's thoughts about them.
 
The fact Jesus used the cross as the example of switching from man's thoughts to God's thoughts, tells us He knew that process can be tortuous and painful to the flesh. Jesus went on to say if you want to save your life - your human-based thoughts, you will lose your life. But if you make that switch to God's way of thinking, you will find your life. 
 
Though my thoughts are wrong, they are known and comfortable! New thoughts make me afraid!
To Peter the thought of Jesus going to the cross was opposite everything he had believed of Messiah - but Jesus said lay those old thoughts down because they are man's thoughts. Crucify them. Not harbor them in the back recesses of your mind. Kill them. 
 
How hard was that for Peter to give up, kill, all thoughts he had been trained all his life about how Messiah would kick out the Romans and usher in another golden era for Israel? Jesus said to crucify those thoughts Peter. Let them die a tortuous death if need be - sputter, object, cry, yell, but in the end, let those thoughts die. Work through them. The process is the journey. 
 
Taking up one's cross is not a sickness to carry through life, nor is it caring for an aged relative in their last years, nor is it putting up with a horrible neighbor next door. Taking up the cross is ending man's thinking and taking up God's thinking. That is called 'renewing the mind' from Romans 12:1-2
 
Cheeseburger remix
I thought it was normal husband-wife squabbles. I've seen many other couples and those wives did the exact same thing as my wife. (There must be a female gene that compels them to sample their husband's food, :)
 
Man's thoughts would be to justify protecting my plate due to my past - "When dad left we each got a plateful of food and that's it." Man's thoughts would be "You could have ordered what I ordered, so no, be happy with what you ordered." Which is exactly (evidently) what had been in my heart for years until I repented.
 
When the Father said "I know you'd take a bullet for her..." He was acknowledging my heart on the big picture, but He was wanting me to take the 'bullet' of giving her a bite of my lunch - He was pointing out my hypocrisy, that proof of my willingness to take that real bullet was played out in taking a little bullet of letting her have my lunch. 
 
That opened up a lot of introspection asking myself where else do I not treat her as Christ does the church, and giving Himself for her? How can I further lay down my life for family, friends, neighbors, those I serve in ministry? What other thoughts of man lurk in my heart that I must crucify that I may think as the Father thinks?
 
And that's where we'll pick it up next week. Until then...oh, what you are eating looks good, can I try some?
Blessings,
John Fenn
www.cwowi.org and email me at cwowi@aol.com

Hi all,
It was budget time at the Bible school where I was Executive Director, and that meant about 2 million dollars had to be worked through in detail, especially since the pastor and financial officer had asked all Department heads to cut 10% - I was determined to do that without eliminating jobs.
 
Being a Bible school there were always students rushing into the office between classes wanting to see John. But my Assistant wasn't someone to be tangled with. She viewed herself as a Doberman Pinscher watch dog and me the thing she was guarding. She confronted everyone, and from the way some students put it, with a bark, bared teeth, and a snarl. 
 
I wanted to see each student because it was more fun and fulfilling to help students than it was to crunch budget numbers. But then, it is always more fun to operate in your gifts, but I had learned it is those who learn to do what does not come naturally in business who are successful. 
 
My Assistant told me, "John, your heart is as big as all outdoors, and all these students think they have something urgent only you can solve. But the budget is important and if you don't get that done Pastor will really be angry, so I'm going to turn these students over to other staff." I realized wisdom when I saw it.
 
I learned that day to discern between the urgent and the important
There are times we have to deal with the urgent don't get me wrong, because sometimes the urgent is also the important. If you cut your toe off with a chain saw that is both urgent AND important. 
 
But very often we can choose to deal with the urgent later so we can stay focused on the larger, important thing because it is the important that charts our course for the next year or more. The students were urgent, but the budget was important. Without a budget there would be no students!
 
The urgent is the thing that is screaming at you for attention. The important determines your future, lies quietly in the background, and is often not fun to deal with. It requires purposeful attention.
 
It is the important that leads us to maturity as human beings and in Christ. The urgent is that desire to yell and scream at the person who wronged you. The important is that you grow in Christ and handle it as He would. The urgent is the knee-jerk reaction the important is seeing the larger perspective.
 
The urgent is all the voices screaming there may be a rapture and aren't we all excited; the important is growing in the areas Christ is asking of you today. The important is the internal voice of the Shepherd. The urgent are all the other voices vying for our attention. 
 
The important that is happening all over the earth
Paul said in Acts 14:16 and 17:29-31 of God, "...in times past He allowed all nations to walk in their own ways..." and "...the times of this ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent because He has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man He has ordained. And He gives assurance to all people in that He raised Him from the dead."
 
He is still allowing nations to walk in their own ways, the difference now being He "commands all men everywhere to repent". And herein is the difficulty: Individuals and nations don't want to repent and follow God and His ways. The urgent is the commotion and activities involved with nations walking in their own ways, continually at war with Christ. The urgent is also believers running around looking for the latest sign of His coming, when the important is the spread of the gospel which is THE sign the end of the age is near. 
 
At the same time the nations are walking in their own ways the gospel is advancing from within these nations, causing one person after another to repent and come to God, in a grass roots ground swell across the world. In the same way the Roman Empire was changed from the bottom up over the course of 300 years by Christianity - meeting in homes, one home at a time upward and outward to their culture - so too is God moving in individuals, homes and families in a relationship based faith (not a program or building based faith), all over the globe.
 
That is why Jesus said in Matthew 24:14 this gospel will being preached in all the world with a witness and THEN the end will come. As the gospel is preached throughout the world all people and all nations must decide to follow Him - or not. He is letting nations go their own way, but He is advancing in the hearts of millions anyway. 
 
Revival?
If you attend an auditorium church you've heard for years about the 'revival' that is coming to the world. In an auditorium pastor's mind that means more services, a larger sanctuary, and growing budget as these people come to his church. 
 
But the reality is that the 'revival' is already happening, it is just that most pastors are outside the loop of what God is doing outside their 4 walls so they are only vaguely aware, if at all. Check your sources, but several say that China and India are vying for the title of the largest predominantly Christian nation. China by 2025, India by 2030 at current levels of growth. I heard a house church leader in Chinasay 1,000,000 (1 million) Chinese come to the Lord every month. Here is just one article in secular media from last year: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/22/china-largest-christian-country_n_5191910.html
 
Here we go
A clash of cultures is therefore inevitable - Christians and conservatives rising from within nations to embrace the things of God, while the political system which has rejected God's rule does all it can to suppress the Spirit of God in citizen believers and its culture.
 
The mildest form of judgement is to allow a person or nation to experience the ramifications of their decisions and actions. As with Israel in the wilderness who insisted 10 times God was only making their life miserable and they wished they could die in the wilderness, He finally let them have what they said they wanted.  
 
THAT is what is happening in the earth. If anyone missed it predicting the rapture, it is because God is allowing all nations to walk in their own ways, for they have rejected Him at every step. For nations who refuse God's ways politically, economically, socially, culturally, it means eventual collapse because God's ways work and men's ways if allowed to their final end, don't.
 
And yet within the nations are a remnant who ARE following God and His ways, watching with horror what is happening around them. For those who walk with Him, there is always grace and provision and purpose.
 
Consider this on a small scale
What if you have a family in your neighborhood and they make it clear they don't want your God. You observe them sink into greater levels of dysfunction over time; Maybe substance abuse, marital affairs, children who are unruly and in trouble at school, maybe he can't hold a job, and so on. Those are urgent needs in their lives, but they haven't a clue what is important, of how to chart their larger course. That family is a snapshot of a larger national dysfunction.
 
If they were a nation some Christians would say God is judging them, or maybe the black cat that ran across the street in front of their car last night was a sign of a collapse to come. But they are just a family walking in their own ways, and because they don't want God, He allows them to experience the consequences of their decision - He isn't doing it to them, it was their choice. Technically He isn't judging them, He is just letting them be accountable to their actions, which is fair and right.
 
At some point that family comes to the end of its ways, and one of them, let us say the wife, opens up to you seeking answers, and you share the Lord with her. She and you begin praying for her family, and over the course of time her husband comes to the Lord, then the kids, and the family is transformed.
 
THAT is our hope for our nations. The government of man is going its own way while the answers are in their midst. At some point things will collapse under their own weight of dysfunction as the family in my example. Can we get our eyes off the skies (urgent) to focus on the collapsing people around us, because changing families means we are changing our nation (important). The church has to get small, family size, to become large enough to change a nation. 
 
New series next week with a story about a cheeseburger and selfishness, until then, blessings,
John Fenn
www.cwowi.org and email me at cwowi@aol.com

Hi all,
In what seems like a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, I owned 2 pizza delivery stores. At one of them I had a manager who was well liked, got along with everyone, and was polite with customers....but just couldn't understand the concept of showing up for work on time. 
 
On numerous occasions I went to the store at 11am (opening time) and the phones were ringing wildly, drivers were standing outside wanting to be let in so they could go to work...and the manager wasn't there.
 
Furthermore, for example, our large (16"/40.6cm) pepperoni pizzas were to have 16 ounces of cheese (453 grams) and 52 pepperoni slices, but he put 18 ounces and 62 slices on. And, he liked talking so much to employees, that when business slowed after the lunch or dinner hour, he couldn't bring himself to have them clock out. As a result, his food and labor percentages were $2000 too high each month.
 
But I was witnessing to him, so starting in January continuing through September I kept giving him warnings and talking to him. Each month or pay period that went by I would make a deadline and goal for him to meet, and when he failed he sincerely apologized and had what were to him legitimate excuses for what happened on x night to make the percentages off...so I relented. 
 
On October 3 I was complaining to Barb yet again how he was costing us $2000 per month in food and labor, and he had failed every goal I'd set with some excuse or another, and she said: "You love him more than you love me, because if he is costing us at least $2000 per month like you said, that is money taken away from me and our children's mouths and you're giving it to him." She was right.
 
I fired him the next morning.
 
I had ended last week talking about how Steven told us in Acts 7:42 God reached a point when He decided He would not go on giving Israel chances to repent. He said, "...and God turned and gave them over to worship the host of heaven." 
 
Israel refused God 10 times
Upon hearing God had turned and would not give them another chance, but would make them wander in the wilderness 40 years, a year for each day they had spied out the land and decided against going into it, the people mourned and repented - but their repentance was too late*.
 
To show the Lord how sincere they were they gathered an army without Moses or Joshua and entered the Promised Land and attacked the Amalekites and Caananites who lived there, against Moses' advice. He had told them not to go for 'God is not with you'; but they attacked anyway and were soundly defeated, retreating back into their camp. *Numbers 14:39-45
 
Israel is the manager...
In my example above we could make Israel the manager and my position as owner, as God was to Israel.
God reached a point with Israel He decided to let them experience the ramifications of their words and actions. Parents reach those points with their children. Teachers with students. At some point giving them grace becomes enabling them to continue in dysfunction or sin or laziness, and there comes a point they must experience the consequences they'd been warned about. That is what God did to Israel. Their actions caused Him (and us) to do things we don't want to do, but must. 
 
Joshua and Caleb were allowed to enter the Promised Land
Consider Joshua and Caleb's perspective for it is ours, as Christians no matter in what nation we live. Joshua and Caleb were a remnant who saw their nation falling away from God's ways. 
 
A remnant is a small piece of cloth that remains when the rest of the cloth has been sold or used - it is a left-over piece. That word 'remnant' is used 540 times in the Bible and often means 'that which is left over after a community or nation undergoes a disaster or catastrophe'. 
 
It was used to describe left over food or oil, and 'leftover' people. That is the position of believers in the midst of a nation and culture that doesn't serve God. It describes Joshua and Caleb who were remnants of their generation, and it describes the 7,000 knees that refused to bow to Baal in Elijah's time. 
 
Think about what the remnant saw going on around them when Israel as a whole started following other gods and goddesses. How they must have mourned and prayed, and even feared what might happen to them and their nation. Are we any different today no matter what nation is your home?
 
There is always a remnant who watch in horror the things befalling their country due to the evil practices of the ungodly - but it happens to their nations anyway.
 
Troublemakers?
When Ahab first met Elijah he asked in I Kings 18:17, "Are you the one troubling all Israel?" To the evil, it is the followers of God, the remnant, who appear to be the troublemakers, and to them, they must be stamped out. 
 
That spirit giving evil people that perspective has been seen throughout history - from the rulers of Babylon who were against Daniel and friends, to Hitler thinking the Jews and Christians were troubling Germany, to in the US and other nations in a continually increasing boldness among liberals who blame conservatives, Christians and Jews for the troubles of their nation. 
 
From their perspective, we are causing their agenda from being implemented so we are the troublemakers, and if only they could be allowed to do what they want, the country would be at peace.
 
People have asked me...
I often get asked when I travel if I feel evil spirits over a city. And if I turn my attention to it I can often sense areas of particular demonic activity or what 'big' spirits rule an area, but to tell you the truth, I am so aware of Christ in me and God's presence in and around and with me, and look for what He is doing in an area, that I only see and feel and sense Him. I just don't naturally look for what the devil is doing. 
 
Jesus said in Matthew 24:14 "And this good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the world with a witness (signs/wonders), and then the end will come", THAT is my measuring stick for where we are in world events - what God is doing - not what the devil is doing.
 
I find it fascinating how the Ezekiel 38 alliance between Russia, Turkey, Iran (Persia in OT times so could easily include Iraq) is taking shape daily right before our eyes, even as I write this we see news of Russia, Iran and Iraq forming Russian bases in Iraq and Syria - amazing days!
 
BUT...on a personal level my focus is to listen to the One voice: Christ in me, the hope of glory. 
 
Many, many Christian voices are actually spirit of fear driven - from conspiracy theories to world economic collapse, many Christians have reached a point they don't care anymore because they are just plain tired of all the voices. Many are mere breakfast cereal: Fruits, nuts, and flakes. 
 
When Jesus said in John 10:3 that His sheep know His voice and He calls each by name, that was only the first part of His statement. He concludes saying in v5: "And a stranger they will not follow for they don't know the voice of strangers." 
 
Too many believers are listening to other voices than the Good Shepherd who is in them. We need to hear His voice in us, for we are in the days God when God has turned, and is allowing all nations to walk in their own ways while we as remnants watch with fascinated horror the world dissolve around us. And as has happened before, we will get the blame...
 
I've run out of room - next week - tying it all together, why the rapture didn't happen, what God is doing.
Blessings,
John Fenn
www.cwowi.org or email me at cwowi@aol.com