Bob & Bonnie Horning

Recently I was called out by another person in Christ saying I wasn't doing it right. I was showing people love and sharing all about love with people but not always sharing about Christ and Him crucified. "If you love someone, you HAVE to tell them Christ died a horrible death for them." I replied, "Yes, when God tells me to." "I try to only do what my Father tells me to do and only when He tells me to do it." This didn't sit well with them. They said, "You have to share the Gospel with them." "We are told to go out and preach the Gospel to every nation." they exhorted.

What is the Gospel? It means good news doesn't it? What is that good news? So many have turned the good news into a horror story. Over time, many have died at the hands of Christian crusaders. Accept Jesus or die. Even today there are many who just preach to accept Jesus or burn in hell forever. Turn or burn! But I see a much different God. I know a loving Father who sits on the throne and eagerly awaits those He calls and chose. He already knows who will accept Him and who won't. He is not anxious, but yet when someone turns from evil to accept His great love, I see Him eagerly running to meet us. We can't save anybody, only the Holy Spirit can save people. We can plant seeds. Sometimes we water seeds already planted and some really fun times we get to be the harvester. But we ourselves can do nothing to save a person from hell.

What we can do is share the Gospel? The Gospel according to Jesus is: The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. He was the light of the world until he ascended to the right hand of the Father and then sent His Holy Ghost to inhabit our bodies. We are the light now. All we had to do was believe and the Holy Spirit came to live within us. So all we have to do is live and breathe like we know the Holy Spirit and breathe on others the Spirit of Life. Rivers of living water shall flow forth from our bellies and spill all over everyone we come in contact with.

I see many believers walking about that are not exhibiting the all the gifts of the Spirit. Some I can honestly and sadly say I see none of the gifts. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness and self control. When you are in a store and somebody is holding you up in line, or they don't have what they advertised, or someone cuts in front of you or you pick the life situation... what do you do? I have found we are under a microscope. When we proclaim Jesus as our Savior and then lose it the next minute... are we really representing Jesus or the Gospel.

I finish by saying that I think too many stop short at the crucifixion for what Jesus did for us. But as Paul Harvey would always say, ... and now the rest of the story. His resurrection is the real story. That God would resurrect from the dead the guiltiest man who ever lived? The sinless man who was made to be ALL sin; yours, mine everyone who has ever lived and who will ever live, was saved and set free from death and eternal damnation. Why? Love. For God so loved the world...

For some reason this came across my desk today and made me think of that.

Throughout Scripture David is known as "the man after God's heart." His passion for God seems unparalleled in Scripture; yet he also illustrates a love for life that is without equal. In Psalms 137:6 (NASB), he says, "May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not exalt Jerusalem above my chief joy." In today's religious community this statement would probably not be accepted. How can Jerusalem, the community of the redeemed, be called his chief joy? Isn't God supposed to be his chief joy? The apparent paradox fits perfectly into the Jewish culture that looks for practical expression of spiritual truths. David's love for God needed expression, and Jerusalem was a perfect target.
When we live with genuine passion for God, it creates a passion for other things. While it is possible to value other things above God, it is not possible to value God without valuing other things. This is the key point confronting the religious mindset, which dismisses everything not considered sacred. The effort to accomplish the goal of loving God with no other passions has had to create a monastic lifestyle to survive. And while I admire many of the monastic believers in the past, it is not the model that Jesus gave us. The way we steward the rest of life becomes the litmus test that demonstrates an authentic love for God.
(Excerpt from the book, Dreaming with God - by Bill Johnson, Page 113, Destiny Image Publishing.)

This post is a true story of a settlement I had a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away........

Once upon a time I was actually selling real estate for a living, or I should say for a meager existence. This was before Buyer Agency was in effect. We had never heard of anything other than buyer beware. We all worked for the seller... which in my opinion was not a bad system. After all, they paid us, not the buyer. And I might add that my real estate agent career did overlap with the buyer agency phase and not one buyer I worked for ever paid me.

I had these buyers of new construction. It was in a huge subdivision that was going to be building for 10-15 years to come. We were settling in the winter. They were a little upset with the builder about some items they wanted and he wasn't able to do it without charging more money. They thought he should do it for nothing. I don't recall the exact reasons and they aren't important, however; at some point they were so upset that they called a local attorney to ask questions about their rights. I was not aware they had done this. As far as I knew, things were going fine. They were difficult at times and required a good bit of hand holding.

We got there old home sold with a lot of effort, much advertising, many open houses and finally a good buyer with a decent offer that they seemed happy with. We settled on their home and went to the next settlement with the huge Penske truck loaded with all their belongings and went to the settlement appointment for their new home. The walk through had been done and I thought everything was goind smoothly.

Suddenly at that settlement table an uninvited guest blew into the room like he owned the place. It was the attorney they had contacted. The client seemed as surprised as everyone else was. He started just helping himself to the paperwork, looking it over and stated that it was a good thing they had called him. Obviously they had told him when and where settlement was going to be. We were all just kind of dumbstruck and then he asked to meet with "his clients" outside alone. Again, reminding you that I worked for the sellers, I sat in the room with them apologizing I had no idea this was going to happen. We spent the additional time going over the buyer's punch list from the walk through and found nothing that raised any flags.

Then Mad Max (with apologies to Mel Gibson) and 'His clients' blew back into the room and he stated, "I recommend we don't settle unless you escrow $3,000 for yard seeding." The seller responded with something like, "I have a long history and reputation of keeping my word. I will be building here in this neighborhood for another 15 years and am not about to leave someone's yard unfinished. It's winter and as soon as spring is here I promise as with all other yards of other homes settling in the winter, I will seed and finish the lawn. I have never and will not escrow any monies for seeding."

IMPASSE. The attorney stood his ground and my clients were going along with him. Thinking I had not done a good enough job for them apparently. A few more statements back and forth with nobody budging and then silence. I knew this game from training class, first one to speak loses. I thought and thought and then one thought popped into my head. So I broke the cardinal rule of speaking first. With their old home settled and all their belongings in a moving truck. I asked my clients, "So, where are you going to sleep tonight?"

Reality sunk in, they asked to talk alone without their attorney or me present. In 5 minutes, they came back in the room and said Thank you to their attorney and said, we feel we can trust the builder. We will sign. The attorney muttered something about it's a mistake and not to call him when they have more trouble and left in a huff. After he was gone, they claimed they never asked him to come. And to add insult to injury, they received a bill from him for $450. settlement conference fee. I'm not sure if they ever paid him or not.

This all came back to memory just from reading Doug Roger's featured headline today... do you plan on living in your truck? Thanks for the memories Doug. But I'm real happy to be advertising and marketing real estate instead of selling it.

The ongoing crisis in the Gulf has left many people eager to act but wondering what to do. Christians believe that the transformative power of prayer extends beyond our human limitations.

This Sunday July 18, 2010 the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) and the Evangelical Environmental Network (EEN) are calling for a National Day of Prayer for the people of the Gulf, for God's creation in the gulf, and for the Lord's intervention and deliverance.

In Partnership with them, we invite you and your church to join in this show of faith and solidarity with our neighbors in the Gulf. Whether your church chooses to participate by saying a single prayer or centering an entire service on this challenge to our stewardship of creation, we encourage you to pass this information to all your friends and visit this site for more details and creative ideas and resources for this Sunday's activities.

http://prayerforcreationcare.creationcare.org/

Here's my prayer: Abba, we cry out for your mercy. We are a country still looking to our creator, the one mentioned in all our founding papers, the one who granted us inalienable rights. We repent for calling good -evil, and evil- good. We ask for Your hand to come and help us, again. We know there is no God but you God. We know that Your Word says, if my people who call me by my name and humble themselves in prayer would call out my name, I will heal their land... we are crying out now Lord. Please forgive us our sins and send your awesome healing to the Gulf in all ways. So we call out Your name, Jehovah Rapha, God our healer please have mercy on us once again. Amen and amen (truly and so be it).

Why? is the only question I seem to come up with. I used to love NYC. I've visited there, I've worked there for a time... it's an amazing place and a symbol of our nation. A melting pot that has now gone way to far in their efforts to be "fair" to all. I believe they are on a one way track to destruction and this mosque will be the beginning of the end.

I know something about Islam. I've been to Israel and personally know some muslims. All "good" people. But I also know a little about their Quran. There is a verse that instructs them to be two faced. One face for Allah and one face for infidels or non-believers. The 2nd face allows them to appear friendly as long as it helps achieve the goal of either killing them or converting them.

Now, take a look at what 2 out of our 4 national networks don't want you to see. You decide what, if anything, you should do.

I remember reading this in more depth in his book. Today I was reminded again of this powerful word and wanted to share it. Francis is an incredibly gifted teacher. His In Christ's Image Training course was the first knowledge I received upon being saved. I count myself extremely Blessed to have started my journey under his tutelage.

"I Do Not Remember"
By Francis Frangipane
(En Español)

How little we understand of eternal redemption! How many times will God forgive you? If you have truly set your heart to follow Him, He will cancel your sins as often as you ask. Will He forgive you of the worst sin you can think of? Yes! You may have to live with the consequences of your misdeed, but the redemptive power of God is such that, even in your sin, there are many things of value to be reclaimed. As for the sin itself, if you deeply and sincerely repent of it, not only will God forgive you, He will blot it out of His memory.

Let me share an experience. A certain man of God had been gifted with revelatory insight into people's lives. During an evening service he ministered to a Presbyterian pastor and his wife. By the gift of the Spirit, he revealed the couple's past, uncovered their present situation and then disclosed to them what was to come. This work of God greatly impressed the couple, and as the prophecies were fulfilled, one month later the Presbyterian minister brought two other pastors, each with their wives, to another service for personal ministry.

The word of knowledge was exceptionally sure that night, and the second minister and his wife marveled at the accuracy and truth in the prophetic word. The third couple stepped forward for ministry and again the word of knowledge was present. The prophet spoke to the husband, revealing his past, present and insight into his future. Then the man of God turned to this third minister's wife. As he began to speak of her past, suddenly he stopped. "There was a very serious sin in your past." The woman, with her worst fear seemingly upon her, turned pale and closed her eyes. The congregation hushed and moved to the edge of their seats.

The prophet continued, "And I asked the Lord, 'What was this sin that she committed?' And the Lord answered, 'I do not remember!'"

The Lord had been faithful to His promise: "I will not remember your sins" (Isa. 43:25). Although many times this minister's wife had asked for cleansing, still she could not believe the depth of God's forgiveness. Christ had placed her sin in the sea of His forgetfulness. He removed it "as far as the east is from the west" (Ps. 103:12). From everywhere but the prison of her own mind, her sin had been paid for and removed. And now, in His great mercy, He removed it from there as well!

Oh, what burdens we carry, what guilt and limitations surround us because we do not accept God's total and perfect forgiveness. In Isaiah we read, "I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake; and I will not remember your sins" (Isa. 43:25).

How great is the God we serve. How wonderful is His love toward us. He is our Redeemer! Our Savior! If you are willing to forgive others and will but ask Him to forgive you, He will pardon your debts as often as you contritely turn to Him. He promises He will remember your sins no more.

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The preceding message is from Francis' book, Holiness Truth and the Presence of God (published by Arrow Publications). This book is available in our bookstore for $9.00 plus shipping and handling.

The eBook version is currently on sale for $4.50, which is half off the suggested retail of the print version. Please see information below or visit the Arrow Bookstore at www.arrowbookstore.com.

Click here to watch a Francis Frangipane youtube vid... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKFU1CBX6BQ