Like you, we are glory seekers. We have wonderfully, “Tasted and seen, the Lord is good!” The greatest prize is in the pursuit of the fame, splendor and radiant beauty of our Sovereign! We came to Yeshua in the days of the Jesus... Read More...
Riverfront Property in Audio
I am so grateful and pleased to share freely the whole audio book of Riverfront Property: Connecting At The River Of Life! I’m confident you will receive a delicious drink! As you find your thirst quenched please recall those you know who would also love a drink, and pass the cup! Read More...
A Miracle Story
Thursday July 30, 1987, started out as just another hot summer day in Ellensburg, Washington, a town of about fifteen thousand souls in a picturesque valley a hundred miles east of Seattle... Read More...
On a Friday morning I became homeless. It happened suddenly without warning. I lost my home and my friends and found myself with a sleeping bag and small sack to carry my only belongings.
It was hot. I walked down the road feeling invisible. No one driving by noticed me as I stopped to rest in the shade of a tree. People crossed the street to walk around me. People looked at me and triple locked their cars in the parking lot. I have never broken into a car, or even tried. I am a honest person. It felt terrible.
What changed that day was that I was suddenly someone to fear. I felt ashamed. I was scared too. Where would I sleep, where would get something to eat, where would I find water? How would I let my family know where I was?
I had to look carefully for a place to sit, the ants were busy. I actually felt having a salient thought was harder to come by, my mind racing to understand my dilemma!
This was our Iris Abilene School of Ministry 24 hour emersion in homelessness!
Larry, our guide, had a story. He was a truck-driving partner with another man. Sitting shotgun he had a serious heart episode. He was left at an ER. His truck driving buddy never returned.
His heart was seriously blocked and he didn’t have the money the hospital required to place the needed stint! He found himself alone and sick in a strange city. The only thing he owned in the world was a bed roll. He lived under a bridge where railroad tracks ran.
Larry graciously showed us the ropes of living homeless. What a humble man. I may never look at my house, bed and frig the same way. He said, “I slept out under the stars with a train busting by my tent. The sounds of wild things from the dark sent my heart into double time.” I thought about what it would be like to have no living person wondering where I was. And perhaps worse, feeling like no one in the world cared.
Larry shared that the cement under-girders of the local bridges were the safest places to sleep, but mighty hard on the bones. He feared someone beating him up for the few things he owned . He was hungry and lonely and sick. His meals came out of a dumpster. His relentless thought was of ending his life by throwing himself under a train.
But he also prayed. Larry told a story of hearing weird, demonic noises in the middle of the night as he slept under a tarp which hung from a little tree. He heard a voice telling him to get up and move. After four months of homelessness he found Love and Care Ministries in Abilene who helped him find a place and a new way. Larry showed us bridges and fields where we might find shelter. How quickly you can feel dirty!
Under one bridge where the homeless sleep we spoke with a police officer who shared a conversion story which started by helping an elderly man across a street. He asked the man a question about his circumstances. The man opened his wallet and he showed him a warn picture from a church directory. His wife and three kids had all been killed instantly in an accident. His world ended and he was unable to keep working. He lost his home and ended up living on the streets. He’d been there for years! That police officer’s life was changed that day.
We were treated well by our host at Love and Care. We got to ride in their food van taking meals to the homeless and less advantaged. People welcomed us into their small and dilapidated homes as we brought the one hot meal they received that day. We also folded clothes and blankets at the ministry center. They give away hundreds of shirts, shoes, socks and showers every month.
After a night sleeping in a field, off the beaten track, we debriefed about our experiences. As we left for our own home and soft bed I was again thoughtful and grateful to the generous hearts at Love and Care, for Mark Hewitt, the director and his team who minister to hurting people every day.
It seems there are a significant number of the very poor in every city. Look for them and ask God to show them to you! Many on the street got their by no fault of their own. As I offered a bottle of cold water and a meal to these folks I was grateful to God to be received by them, and that they received our prayers!
Who the hell were the trigger happy bastards who shot down our friends and family? And when will they come to punishment?
Sincerely,
The International Community”
Perhaps you can help me. I am typically easy going and good humored but recently I’ve felt cranky.
I wonder where the feelings of, “I’d like to punch someone in the nose!” come from. I did not have friends or family on Malaysian Airlines flight 17. Why do I feel so touchy? Perhaps if I need to sleep better, eat healthier and get better exercise.
Apparently women who are pregnant can become irritable. Could that be it?
If any of you have suggestion or counsel for me it would be welcome.
Thanks,
Irritable, a.k.a. Steve Johnson
Landingstripenterprises.com
“We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.” (Rom 8:22-25 NIV)
It’s my favorite repentance account in the Bible. It was surely Peter’s favorite fish story!
Peter had fished all night at the North end of the Sea of Galilee. They stayed close to the shore where the fish were attracted to the hot springs pouring into the lake. They raised lamps which would attract the fish to the boat. Peter was a successful professional and used proven fishing techniques. The result of burning the midnight oil? Not one fish!
Now they pull to shore to rinse and straighten their nets. The prophet Jesus comes by and a crowd starts pressing so Jesus commandeers Peter’s vessel and preaches to the people from the boat. Then, rather than go back into shore where Peter can get a long awaited nap, Jesus says, “Put out into deep water for a catch.”
Perhaps to humor Jesus or to acknowledge him as a notoriety or perhaps…. At any rate Peter says, “OK, because you say so.” The nets go down, but don’t come up easy! As the fish are pulled in the boat sits lower and lower till water starts trickling over the gunnels!
I wish it was on video. Peter kneels down before Jesus on piles of fish and says, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!” To the best of our knowledge Jesus had not mentioned anything about Peter’s sin. He had not preached to him saying, “You are a crummy, depraved reprobate deserving the fires of Hell.” There is no, “Just as I am” playing in the background.
What makes Peter repent? It was the piles of fish! A landslide of prosperity brought repentance! I have heard people pray that non-believers would experience hardships to turn them to God. For a few hardship might be a stimulant but if you want real repentance it will come from loving kindness.
Jesus said bless your enemies, don’t curse them!
Paul said, God’s kindness leads us to repentance.
When we experience God’s cascading blessings it may lead us into a trembling sensation of awe and wonder which causes us to turn to our gracious Benefactor. Consider the prophecy of Jeremiah in 33:9; “…they will be in awe and will tremble at the abundant prosperity and peace I provide…”
May our friends who are distant from Yeshua be hit hard by his overflowing kindness, bringing them to true repentance!
We had a delightful times adventuring through the old and ancient history at Camp Barkley in Buffalo Gap TX. Wish you could have joined us!
With most of the WWII generation having gone on to their reward it is fascinating to find memory clues of a day gone by, when men practiced crawling on their bellies to ridge tops, missed their wives and girlfriends and wondered what it would be like to engage the enemy. 3800 who trained there did not come home.
We find evidence of their history in scattered bullets and casings, hubcaps, hinges, and old campfires. I wonder what kind of conversations went on:
“Try to beat that shot!”
“We’ll give Hitler hell!”
“Mushy carrots again.”
“It sure gets hot in Texas!”
Some of their dated notes are written in pencil on the back of the firing line wall.
WWII history is old but here you find the absolutely primeval! At Camp Barkley you find sea shells on hilltops! As in every continent you find fossils formed in a great flood. Marine fossils are evidence that once these heights were ocean floors. What a day when the earth buckled up and down and the waters became a great mix-master. Monstrous tidal waves cut out great planes with some of the ocean floors left behind as the new heights.
It is astonishing to tiny fossilized shells and aquatic life on and within rocks! Mud balls of sea life tumbled in the tumult, mixing and crushing and forming fossil balls to inspire wonderment.
Sooner or later we are going to have a grand history class as God the Father takes out his photo scrapbook or his 3D projector.I’m definitely looking forward to story time with Father as He recounts to us mysteries, old and primeval.
