God is Faithful and He Still Speaks If We Will Listen!

While in Israel, we had the opportunity to be baptized in the Jordan River. Pastor Craig had faith that God wanted to heal him of cancer. Before baptizing him, we had a powerful time of prayer out in the middle of the Jordan River. He believed that he would go down dead and rise out of the water alive. Today he got his biopsy results back with no signs of cancer. Hallelujah!

I have been blessed attending special services with Allen Ross at Muldoon Community Assembly. The Lord moved powerfully in the prophetic through Allen. This is a picture of Allen prophesying over our new District Superintendent, Bill Welch. God said that Pastor Bill was a bridge builder and a peacemaker. God said that he will be able to piece together the pieces of the puzzle and would be a visionary, bringing balance. There was much more to the prophetic word, and you can go to the Muldoon website to listen to the sermon and prayers. It has been very refreshing.

Confessions

I have to confess something. . . I love the church. Yes, I know that it is in vogue to badmouth the church as being institutional, outdated, or irrelevant. It seems that many want to abandon the concept of the church. I am not one of those people. Does the church have problems? Sure. I've experienced this firsthand in the time I have been in ministry. People do mean things sometimes. But, I love nothing more than seeing people serving God day in and day out in the local church. I have seen so many youths lives changed from the faithfulness of Youth Pastors and youth workers. I have seen too many children's lives changed from the love of a Children's Pastor or children's workers. I have seen too many people led in worship by a gifted worship team led by the Spirit. I love Pastors who seek God's face and choose to be servant leaders and examples for Christ. The church is full of people who love God and are doing their best to love others. Are there problems in the church? You bet. But I still love it and want to do my best to serve Pastors and churches as best I can to carry out the great and crucial mission of the church: to make disciples. The name of my blog is "Ekklesia," the Greek word for "assembly." New Testament writers adapted this word to denote the body of believers, or the church. Jesus said, "I will build my church (ekklesia), and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."