Baltimore conference

Several people asked me about the "The voice of the apostles" conference I attended last week. It was super-charismatic, kind of a continuation of the Toronto revival movement. Bill Johnson spoke on the supernatural- amazing stuff. Heidi Baker, who has been responsible for starting 10,000 churches in Mozambique over about 15 years, also spoke. And several others you have heard of spoke, along with about 3000 participants who were present.

Two things really struck me. First, there is a hunger for God among our youth, many of whom are in alternative training programs (like my son Andrew currently is). Second, there is a hunger for the supernatural here in America which means that we will see amazing things here in the future.

I am optimistic about the future of the church in America.

Good eating at church

When I first started in the ministry I wondered why many pastors are really overweight. Here's why- church events provide ample opportunities to eat well. Where there are people, there tends to be lots of food.

Saturday was a good example. It started with a women's breakfast. Our women provide an incredible huge banquet of food, beautifully arranged. But many of them are continually dieting, and can't eat much. So others have to help. Then at noon there was a missions committee meeting with food, though much simpler. And again at night we hosted a building informational meeting with an incredible dessert spread.

Several people were at all three events, and noted that they did not have to eat at home all day. The church fed them!

Heaven will be a banquet.

Indian worship in Covered Bridge

What a weird spiritual experience I had this morning! I was prayer-walking in Covered Bridge, a huge (about 900 home) senior condo development in Manalapan mostly populated by Jewish people who have moved from Brooklyn and Queens. While walking before one building on Amberly Drive, a tall Indian man walked out the door near me carrying a large shiny copper vase. (This was unusual in itself, as I have never seen any Asian person in this development, and he looked younger than the senior requirement.) He turned towards the sun (later I realized that this was east) and held the vase above his head in an act of worship. After a little time he slowly poured out a brown liquid onto the sidewalk until the vase was empty. He stood for a bit in an ecstatic worship pose, holding the vase above his head and gazing at the sun.

I prayed to cancel out whatever worship of any false god happpened, as I was praying for blessing on the development.

Does anyone know what he might have been celebrating?

Bumper sticker

Seen on the NJ Turnpike-

YOU CAN TRUST THE GOVERNMENT
TO KEEP ITS PROMISES---
JUST ASK INDIANS ABOUT TREATIES

Food miracles

In my devotions I have been reading through the reference "All the Miracles of the Bible", by Herbert Lockyear. He classifies miracles in a way I have never seen. Do you know there are countless miracles involving water, 5 involving fire, and 3 involving the sun?

There are also 5 miracles where food was created- food miracles! Our missionary in El Salvador Don Triplett says that he has seen food multiplied many times. Can you name the food miracles in the Bible?

A nonprophetic dream

I have gotten many comments about my prophetic dreams. I have had hundreds, if not thousands, of these over the years, and have started writing them down for the last 2 years. Recently I read a Christian book on the topic, "Dreams, Wisdom Within", by Herman Riffel, which gave me lots of ideas about this (maybe we will have a separate post on the book, it is worth it). But the question most asked is, "how can you tell if a dream is prophetic or not?"

Riffel's answer is that God spoke to people in the Bible countless times through dreams, and most societies see this as a valid way for God to speak. But in America, we tend to see dreams as nonsense, and to ignore them when God speaks to us through them.

My prophetic dreams have a different feel, a different weight than the rest of them. Last night I had a fun dream that I doubt was prophetic. I was in a house with people I knew (you may be one of them!). Gradually everyone but me turned into tigers. This became scary, as they lurked around hungry for something (or someone?) to eat. Then they became sick. But gradually they morphed back into people.

I am sure a psychoanalyst would have a field day with this dream!

The gain of death

This week I was studying Philippians 1:21- "for me, to live is Christ, to die is gain." After attending a funeral yesterday, I thought about the fact that Paul viewed death as a gain. This is the opposite of today's approach, where death is a disaster, and life is to be clung to at all costs.

Have you ever viewed death as a gain? Paul did.