Shepherds and Sheep

JUSTIFIABLE DOUBT

2010-06-20T16:14:00.000-07:00

June in Hawaii. After lunch, I asked her how she got in the wheelchair. Automobile accident. She had been in the chair 6 years.

I offered to pray for her, she was delighted. After prayer, I asked "any difference?" She looked at me blankly, as though the thought had never entered her mind. I pushed a little. "I'm serious. I have seen people paralyzed 6 years get up and walk."

Still no move to check it out. I didn't push.

Later I got an email that the couple had come back looking for me. She was now walking without pain!

The Shepherd has said that he can and will do things for us. Why are the sheep so doubtful?

Harvest Time!

2009-02-08T23:37:00.000-08:00

It's been half a year since I posted to this site. This week I received two unsolicited testimonies from past investments. This first one is from a comment posted on my Walking with Jesus blog spot. I don't get many comments!

Hi hugh,,, you won't remember me, but anyway you came to my church early last year to preach..

It's been a year since that time, and now i'm in Singapore for university. i just want to tell you the seeds you plant in me personally has really help me a lot. It arouse my passion to love people. I am so motivated to shine for God wherever i am, be the light and serve everyone with abundant love God has given me. Oh, and you were telling us not to be afraid of being really religious. to be honest sometimes i just follow the current, when i can see no Godliness in school i cease to become Godly. It really is refreshing to look to my old notes and find the message you shared scribbled in it again.. So i thought i might look for you online to thank you..

this next one was in an email sent by the Director of the school I work with:

I have been meaning to share this to you but got sidetracked, so here it is.During the first batch of our senior high graduates in 2006 you gave an amount of money to one of our student. I would like to let you know that student has excelled in her studies in the university, in fact she got another scholarship entering the university. At one of the school project she managed to get excellent performance that the university sent her on an educational trip to Europe with all expenses paid.I believe the seed has been sown on good ground, we are eagerly waiting to hear more of her excelling in other areas.Thank you for your generosity and I look forward for more seeds to be sown in the future.

My Delight: Investing in People - The return is really

OUT OF THIS WORLD!!

Ai Yao

2008-06-12T14:51:00.000-07:00

I had my last session this school year with two Chinese teachers. One became a Christian while still in China, and was well tutored by a foreign missionary. The other received Christ during a school retreat. This second one, Ai Yao, will return to China. My mission has been to prepare her to return to a family and community that does not know Christ. She says she knows of no Christian or church in her place!

So when Dennis Balcombe. who been missionary in Hong Kong for nearly 40 years, quite well known for his ministry in mainland China since as soon as China opened to foreigners again, came to Surabaya, I was keen to get her connected to him and the China church through him.

This happened this past week with meetings with Dennis on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. I was privileged to have several meals with Dennis and pick his brain on many topics. I was pleased to find that he is a down-to-earth guy.

Ai Yao will be returning to China this week, and now has contacts. I have been feeding her in weekly Bible studies whenever I am in Surabaya, and Mary, the other Chinese teacher, has also been having Bible studies with her. I am excited about the prospects of miracles following Ai Yao as she prays for people and God demonstrates His power, and her being able to have home Bible studies that will turn into churches.

STRUCK BY LIGHTENING

2008-05-26T21:55:00.000-07:00

Rev 3:19-20 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.

Hebrews 12:11 says that the Lord’s chastening is not pleasant while we experience it but it will yield its fruit in time. So the Lord standing at our door and knocking, after we have shut him out, perhaps gets more and more uncomfortable as he must knock harder and harder to get our attention. I have heard many jokes about being struck by lightening by the Lord, but while waiting for my plane from Manila in April it was my first time to meet someone who had been struck by lightening three times, in the same place, and still did not pay attention to the Lord. Finally, he said, there was an accident where a large piece of equipment fell on him, broke his neck and left him paraplegic. Slowly, he had been regaining use of his limbs. Now only some minor functioning of the fingers was deficient, but the pain in his neck was an ever present reminder, and he walked with difficulty because of this pain.

He had been in Davao, Mindinao, to visit his wife. There, they had started works to provide employment and food for the poor. He had met his wife on the internet (I’m meeting many recently, who met like this and are now enjoying healthy, happy relationships, a surprise to me with my prejudice against the principle!). We talked about the wonder of the Lord and the work He calls us to, about how slowly we are to respond, and the variety of methods He employs to call us. He acknowledged that he did believe the three lightening strikes, and the accidents, were indeed all attempts by the Lord to get our attention. He agrees with my understanding that if we don’t repent, as Rev 3:19 clearly says we are called to do, then the knocking gets harder, and more uncomfortable, even painful, until finally we do repent, and pay attention.

This word repent merely means stop going the direction we are going, turn around and go the other direction. In this case the direction toward the Lord and His will and work.

Conclusion: Sheep are really dumb, and slow to understand or respond to the Lord knocking, slow to learn from experience!

Has the Lord been knocking on your door lately?

REBELLIOUS SHEEP

2007-09-07T01:20:00.000-07:00

In the past month, I have been ministering in several places, and have come upon a few ‘hard cases,’ people who hear and acknowledge the truth, but still want to go their own way.

One young man asked for prayer for a job. He got his job within two days. I suggested to him that there was a hindrance to his prayers being answered, for his dreams being realized. He acknowledged that he still liked sex with young men. He said he would like to change, but couldn’t. We worked with him for some time, and finally he came to the realization that he had but to choose to stop, and he could. He thought for a few moments, then asked "If I stop, what will God give me?"

He had received a job when he asked. He had received friends when he asked. I asked him what more he wanted from God. God had already given life, His own life upon the cross. God had already given all!

The young man said he wanted his dreams to be realized. I asked how old he was, and he refused, saying it had no relevance. I reminded him Joseph waited some 16 years, Abraham had waited 25. He acknowledged he had waited much less than one year.

He was bargaining with God, when God had already given all, and was offering the dream at the price of obedience. The young man could not, would not, give up his vice!

Another was a woman who was having severe difficulties for more than two years. She was hanging around Christians, but rejected a God who allowed suffering such as she was seeing. She is a race car driver, one of the tops! Some years ago, she had a death experience, with the black tunnel and bright light at the end and all. But her experience was a bit different. About halfway there, a figure stood before her. She could see only the shadow, because of the light behind. The man caused her to turn around and return.

I asked her if she had ever considered just who it was that had the power to send her back, or send her onward, who had met her in the tunnel. She said she had never given it a thought. She still did not want to explore this question, it seemed irrelevant to her. I told her I thought maybe whoever it was that sent her back had a reason, and perhaps she should consider thinking about who sent her back, and why. I suggested that God sometimes had to get our attention, and the Bible sometimes causes problems in our lives to accomplish this (Hebrews 12:6,11). If we aren’t corrected, he must resort to something stronger.

She did not seem to want to consider this possibility. Yet she continues to experience increasing pain and difficulty in her life, refusing to seek God or His will or purpose for her life. I am fairly certain that as soon as she seeks who it was that sent her back, and why, that these problems will cease.

We all are like these two in some ways in our lives, just not to the extent perhaps of these two. We have ‘blind’ areas of our lives, little habits or addictions we think are not too bad that we refuse to give up. Jesus gave all, so that we could have all. Yet we must exchange our bad habits in order to acquire the good habits that will allow us to live the abundant life he offers. We are all a bit rebellious and stupid this way!

VILLAGE LIFE

2007-06-10T22:03:00.000-07:00

One place we went was to this village where we prayed for a woman partially paralyzed by a stroke. We traveled an hour and a half each way to get to this Muslim stronghold. After we prayed for her and had polite conversation, the women began to talk, and we men went outside to look around. An old toothless man came hurrying along and stopped with a big smile to greet me. I asked him what he had in the bucket on his shoulder and he lowered it and showed me the clothes inside. He was on his way to wash clothes. We followed him across the rice paddies to the pool created by a nearby spring where he went down and joined a woman who was already washing her clothes. Village life is very simple, and this is but one example of how. It was very poetic and beautiful, but I thought I would not trade my washing machine for a half kilometer trek across the rice paddies to wash clothes in a pool! I supposed it isn’t always sunny and nice.

I noticed some school girls gathered down the gravel main street of this village, and went to investigate. Turns out they were fifth graders on recess from the nearby school. The younger kids all ran away but one brave girl spoke out in English "What is your name." This was an opening for me to get them to practice their English, and I got all their names and ages. Just when they were about to sing for me, they were called back to school. Three girls, not in uniform stayed. I asked why they were not in school, and they replied they were sixth graders, already out of school. I sat and talked with them for some time. One wants to be a doctor, one a teacher (sixth grade) and one wants to be used by her nation. I thought this latter was an unusual but very noble and high desire. They sang several songs for me, including one which names all the Asian countries.

It was a very precious visit for me, from the humble dirt floor home we visited to the visits with the children and the old man, giving me a peek into the very simple and very hard life of village farmers in Indonesia.

--HWK--

SHEPHERDS AND SHEEP - NORTH CEMETERY

2007-04-13T21:58:00.000-07:00

North Cemetery is a vast city in itself. Many of the tombs are bigger and better ‘homes’ than any of the thousands (millions?) of poor in Manila. And many of these poor take up residency in the tombs. Owners pay up to $6 a month for a family to take up residency. This provides a roof and area to sleep in exchange for making sure no objects (iron fences, photos, etc) are destroyed or stolen. Some of the owners also provide a drinking water supply for their ‘tenants.’

It is in this place that we had our second annual healing crusade. It is reported to me that our particular area is for sale, the bones have been removed and take to Europe somewhere. There are three crypts, two adult and one child, but a fairly spacious floor area some 6-8 square meters under the roof, which is crumbling cement. Our hosts have the key to the iron fence gate.

Most of our group is very young children and their mothers, with a contingent of teenagers hanging around outside, sometimes moving in and out. We have several lively songs, and I preach a message about Christ, his love, his healing power. A woman experiences relief from the usual back pain and fatigue, and with this, others come forward. One woman is quite fearful, for breast cancer has caused pus to be flowing from her breast. I didn’t get details, I have difficulty enough getting the basic information with the language! After prayer, she said all pain had disappeared. I had her go into the back with one of the ladies on our team to check it out. They came back and reported that the pus flow had nearly stopped. We prayed again, they checked again and reported just a pinpoint of pus remained. Relief and joy flooded her face!

Then some of the teens started coming in. I am not sure of the stories, but the change in faces, and the fact that others came in for prayer told me that something was taking place when I prayed for them.

One of the interesting facets of North Cemetery is the ‘Condominiums.’ I noticed some last year, now there are many more. These are high rise 2x2x6' square tubes piled upon one another, crypts awaiting sale and occupancy of dead bodies. In the meantime, many become places of refuge for the squatter community.

Surely our small gathering is not even a sampling of the lives in this strange community in the middle of one of the largest cities in the world!
--HK--

SHEPHERDS AND SHEEP - A Testimony

2007-04-13T21:50:00.000-07:00

Erike and Wirahade
"Mie Gili" Restaurant Owner

Just before leaving Surabaya, I ministered in a church in a suburb, Sidoaradjo. I ministered there just a year ago, when I prayed for the pastor and his wife to have a child - they were many years (I think 6) childless. Now they have a three month old child. You can do the math.

After church, I was taken to a restaurant to eat, where the owners told me the following story, which I requested my interpreter to put into English and forward to me by email. This is their story. -HK-

In the early 2006 I and my husband got a prophecy from rev. Hugh Kaiser (USA), He spoke that God will give to my husband a job that is even greater than what he has before and still open our restaurant in the city of Sidoarjo . Yet our restaurant selling at that time was decreasing, plus it was near to the end of contract (rent) period in early 2007.

Still in that kind of situation I kept the word of God (prophecy) in the deepest of my heart. In June 2006 the city government set up a median on the road in front of our restaurant caused our restaurant even difficult to be accessed. It cost even more lost and the selling drop to 60% and it wasn’t stop at that point, the property owner asked for 90% raise for the renting price. We try to negotiate but the owner will not move.

During the months of Oct-Nov 2006 we experienced a heavy distress. Every day we circled the city of \Sidoarjo in order to find a new location for our restaurant that fit our financial budget/capability. It seems impossible!!! To find a strategic location always means high cost renting price. Finally, we decide to stop/closed down our restaurant business and planed to go abroad for a job.

At that time I talked to a friend of mine (the person that I was talked to when I got the prophecy), she immediately warned and remind me to the prophecy, I was like waking up from a sleep and back to the track believing if God wants He will arrange everything and open the way. Suddenly I feel peace and surrender everything to Jesus. Not to long from that time we got a new location for our restaurant in the city center as we dream for a long time. Something that we amazed about The Lord Jesus, we got it a lot cheaper compare to the old location. God provide us with the financial. When we talked with the property owner at the time of signing contract, he said that actually many other person have been interested to this location and they are agree to pay even higher. More over, the property owner gave us permission to uninstall the fence in front of that property (that will hinder the face of our restaurant), no one has ever been permitted to.PRAISE THE LORD JESUS, He never late to help us, he makes everything beautiful in His time. He open the way that make us amazed and wonder to His Power, the timing is precisely (Just a month away from the last renting period). No use if we hope to a man help, Jesus is awesome!!!!!!!

Thank You for the chance you have given to us to witness. Hope this testimony can help others more depending to Jesus…….Amen

God Bless You,
Erike and Wirahade

For Lovers Only TESTIMONIES

2007-03-27T05:58:00.000-07:00

These are translations from testimonies voiced during our meeting in Jakarta Thursday, March 22.

Ria : After the retreat – family restored, blessings flowed beyond their imagination. She realized that they should invest the blessing they received and not keep it for themselves. She also realized that they should serve God better than before.

Tri : He wanted to run away the first day of the retreat, a mixed feeling of inferiority, incapability, and other negative feelings gripped him. But as time progressed he felt changes took place in him, a newness and freshness of mind and heart. He has a cell group at his house and asked for our prayers that God will enable him and guide him to minister to his cell group members who are all having marital problems.

Kim : Her dreams come true, for a long long time she wanted to have a spiritual father for both of them especially for her husband Tri. God answered her prayer in sending HK. Through the teaching that she got at the retreat i.e. to show respect to your husband, made her aware of her shortcoming in this area. She did some soul searching and apply self correction. Before the retreat their relationship was stiff/rigid but now a change takes place. They can express their love more freely. Their marital relationship has been restored.

John : This meeting is very important! His wife has cancelled a meeting in order to come to this meeting. Result of retreat: husband & wife relationship has been restored. Now he only sees his wife’s goodness while before that he only sees her shortcomings/weaknesses. Before he cannot take a correction, but now he realized that as a pastor and a husband he has to live a righteous life. Now he didn’t want to minister to the Word of God unless with a clean heart. How can he stand before the congregation if there is no unity in his family.

SHEPHERDS AND SHEEP - SPIRITUAL WARFARE

2007-03-24T01:44:00.002-07:00

In my teaching, I say that the Holy Spirit provides us power to overcome the enemy, both within us (our human nature, for one) and the enemy without (demons, or spirits for one). The following stories are personal experiences which I present because both Shepherds and Sheep should not be ignorant of the enemy’s methods.

WITCH DOCTORS and ILLNESS

2007-03-24T01:44:00.001-07:00

We were conducting a healing service in a remote town in the Philippines in late 1980's. The local people who had completed our seminar on healing prayer formed the teams that prayed for the sick of the town who had come at our invitation.

One team came to me for help. It seems that a young man had come to them for healing a stomach pain which he had had for several months. The pain had gone away, and he had sat down in his seat, where the pain came back. This was repeated three times. The fourth time the man came back to their group for prayer, they came to me.

I suspected demonic activity. In my experience, pain that inexplicably comes and goes, or that moves about in the body, is often caused by spirits. Spirits are either invited by our activities, or sent to attack us. Invitation usually is some occult practice, even such a simple thing as reading horoscopes (the Bible admonishes us not to participate). In questioning the young man, he revealed that he had been to a faith healer, or witch doctor. At first I thought I had the source, but he had gone to be healed of this ailment, so it could not be the cause.

I asked him what the faith healer had said. He told us the faith healer had said that a curse had been placed upon him, but the faith healer could not help because the spirit causing the problem was stronger than the spirit the faith healer used for healing. Knowing that the Spirit given to us by our Father was stronger than any spirit, we bound that spirit and cast it out. The pain was gone and never returned.

SOURCE OF POWER?

2007-03-24T01:43:00.000-07:00

Another time, our team was walking for three days from village to village, praying for people and preaching the gospel. A man began following us the second day. My host said that he asked if we were forming a new group. He was head of a group PBMA - Philippine Benevelent and Mission Association - they also went about healing people. He wanted to join our group, because he saw that the power we had was greater than his power.

A few days later, I was teaching in a seminar and he came in and sat at the back. I had been teaching on the Holy Spirit and hearing God. I had an illustration on the blackboard showing three sources: God, Satan, and our own creative minds. During the break he came and talked with me. He also had seen miracle healings. I asked him which source of power he used, and he pointed at ‘satan’ on the board and said "that power." I asked him why, since by his own observation over the past few days, God’s power was demonstrably more powerful.

He replied that the demons would get angry and hurt him if he used God’s power. He said that it was convenient for a time to use the power of the dark side, but later he would follow God. And he only used it for ‘good.’ Many are enticed or coerced by this same lie and succumb to the convenience of compromise for comfort sake, or unwittingly submit to the evil powers ‘to do good.’

UNDERGROUND RIVERS

2007-03-24T01:42:00.000-07:00

Another time I was invited to have lunch with the governor of Guimaras, a province and small island in central Philippines. There was a map of the island on the wall, and we were discussing the development of mangos as an export crop (today, Guimaras is known for its great export quality mangos). I asked the governor if she knew there were underground rivers, and pointed out three locations where I thought there were underground rivers.

She was surprised, and asked how I knew. They had hired geologists at great expense and time to survey the island, and they had come to exactly the same conclusion. It was easy for me. A pastor friend had experiences with spirits who traveled through underground passages, and in dreams and visions understood that these were rivers and knew the locations of at least three of the accesses to these rivers. This is one case where science confirmed information revealed in dreams and visions.

BLOOD IN THE GROUND

2007-03-24T01:41:00.000-07:00

In Iba, Zambales I was called to clean house for a family who claimed the house was haunted. As I walked through the house, I could sense many spiritual doors and windows through which spirits came and went. Usually spirits use physical openings, but they are not restricted to them, and there exist spiritual doors and windows through physical walls. We have the power to close those openings. I have not studied nor thought much about it, but possibly these passages are between realms rather than just place to place on earth.

It was in the front yard that I really got the creepies! The knowledge that there was blood in the ground, a horrible murder, possible more than just one came into my mind. Against all of my doctrinal thinking, I believed there were really ghosts. I spoke aloud to the spirits, now I can’t even remember what I said, but I spoke peace and comfort and gave them permission to go on to where they belonged. Whatever I said, something changed about the place. The people said later that they never experienced ghosts again after that.

Later, in town, I was talking to friends about the experience, and they began to excitedly tell about stories of that place, there was a feud between brothers, or something, people were indeed killed, and the house was vacant for many years.

NO PEACE

2007-03-24T01:40:00.000-07:00

In Hawaii, some friends asked me to help them pray for their home. They had a daughter in her ‘20's who had begun behaving very strangely, was often ill and ill-tempered. She had recently gotten a boyfriend whose mother practiced witchcraft of the ancient Hawaiians. As we prayed in the girl’s room, there was a heavy, oppressive feeling. She came home while we were in progress, we explained what we were doing, and she willingly submitted and participated.

As we continued praying, she became violently ill, throwing up. After cleaning up, physically and spiritually, the oppressive feeling was gone. A few weeks later my friends said that their daughter was back to her joyous self and had left that boyfriend behind.

Shepherds and Sheep - Lovers Renewed

2007-03-07T17:33:00.000-08:00

FOR LOVERS ONLY

. . . was a Walking with Jesus seminar specially designed for Pastors and their wives. I have done several Pastor and Wife seminars in the Philippines and Vietnam with Gisela, my partner, coordinator, and hostess in the Philippines (she is now in Germany, her children and grandchildren are operating the mission station in Manila). This was the first in Indonesia, and while similarly formatted, had several elements added or changed. Gisela is the originator of most of the material and flow of the seminar - Thanks Gisela, for getting me going!

The thing that drives me to desire to do these seminars is that for more than 10 years I travelled (mostly in the Philippines) doing seminars for pastors. I usually stayed in pastor's homes during these travels. I discovered that the pastor's wife is the loneliest person in the world: the pastor travels, either locally or away, and comes back tired and full of the problems people have dumped on him. He dumps them on her, and she has no place except Jesus. If she utters a peep, it becomes gossip. Besides this, she is expected to be a co-minister and perfect wife and hostess and . . . so many expectations from husband and congregation - all with no acknowledgment or thanks. The husband is too busy with 'his ministry,' 'serving God' to pay attention to wife and family or to minister at home. I realize that in most pastor/wife relationships this condition exists, so there exists a great need for creating awareness in the pastor and restoration for both.

Shepherds are subject to the same human frailities and failures as the sheep, but are limited in their opportunity to confess and recover from the festering wounds caused. Thus we created FOR LOVERS ONLY for Indonesia.

Most common comment or testimony from pastors and their wives:

Thank you for creating for us an example of a loving community for our families and congregations. Among variations were that it would help them be an example and lead in those two areas; that the environment created allowed them to experience a personal change in their attitude and ability to surrender to love; that their spouse had been demonstrably changed; etc.

The teaching methods were new and interesting. We never experienced such deep and heavy teaching in such a simple way, with exercises and games so it was really fun and we got it!

We never experienced such a seminar (retreat) as this. We hope you will follow-up so we can continue in the loving community and the teachings and practices we learned here. We want to help you if you will do this seminar again for others.

During the testimonies I frequently heard the words 'restoration' and 'breakthrough.'

Click on Dream Maker for our dream for the retreat FOR LOVERS ONLY
--HWK--

CONVICTED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT

2007-02-21T18:33:00.000-08:00

RUTH

For some reason in the opening sessions of the three days lecturing on the Holy Spirit at a School for Missions in Bandung, I focused quite a bit on the purpose of the Holy Spirit to make a New Creation, and one important characteristic of the New Creation is discipline.

In the third session, in the late afternoon, I asked for testimonies, because it was obvious that people were being touched by the Holy Spirit. Ruth's testimony surprised everyone! She came forward and related that during the worship time we had in the second session (about 45 minutes of seeking God in worship), the Holy Spirit had spoken to her heart and convicted her that she must be obedient to her husband.She had quite a bit of explanation and story telling, most of which I couldn't understand, but it was clear that she was explaining how her husband was a very organized, methodical man (you can see it in him - very reserved, intellectual type) and she did not like doing things his way.

She confessed she had often been rebellious and apologized and asked forgiveness to his face in front of the whole class. He, like the man he is, stood and listened and accepted without any apparent emotion (obviously needs some work, too).

I encourage testimonies because others are encouraged by them and the Word says in Revelation that the enemy is overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the testimonies of the saints. It is my desire to inflict as much damage as possible to the enemy! We have had lots of testimonies of how the Lord touched people, convicted people, set people free.

I write this at the end of the second day. One more day to go, will have to miss the evening session to catch the overnight train back to Surabaya to fulfill duties at school on Thursday.

This morning I was greeted by the school coordinator with the comment that the students are much more lively today than ever before: more enthusiastic about doing their chores, more eager to help each other, more loving toward each other.

Ahh, this is the work of the Holy Spirit!

TRAIL or DESTINATION?

2007-02-14T01:57:00.000-08:00

A comment about the prevous posting 'Sermon on the Mount.'

Isn't it just like life - some of us pass quickly by what seems familiar to us, eager to get 'somewhere.' We are destination focused, we are goal oriented people (notice I include myself). I don't know about you other goal oriented people, but I have little patience with or understanding of those who just enjoy the trail, and could care less where it takes them, or even if there is a destination.

I am sure they just as well can't understand us. Yet, on this hike, I came to appreciate many dimensions of these disciples that I had not seen before.

Maybe highlight for me was the girls up until nearly 4AM, laughing, giggling, shouting, really enjoying themselves (except for one - snoring!).

Sheep and shepherds come in all kinds of packages, each one precious to God. Know that it is he that has made you and not you yourself, and he delights in you! You are the sheep of his pasture! See Psalm 100:3.

SERMON ON THE MOUNT

2007-02-11T23:39:00.000-08:00

As we walked the trail up the mountain, planning to reach the top and have prayer and our worship service there, it soon became evident that most of the group was into the walk, not the destination. Frequent stops for photos, to observe flora and fauna (such very unusual things as carrots and goats - but then these are city kids and it was new to them!) caused the time to pass more quickly than the miles, so with quite a long way to go, we choose this nearly dry waterfall and river bed for our spot.

Theme for the morning was ‘In the Lord’s house’ based on Psalm 135:1-4. We concluded that the gentle sound of what little water was still falling and flowing, and the birds, and occasional rustle of wind in the trees, made this truly a House of the Lord. Many in the group were visibly touched as we paused for listening and hearing God’s voice in the quiet of his creation.

More to come on this and other blogs.

RELUCTANT PARENT

2007-02-09T07:07:00.000-08:00

One of the teachers at school came to me this past week. She has come off and on for the past four years that I have been working at the school, and is an extremely sensitive person. She is especially sensitive to the Holy Spirit, and has dreams and visions. From the beginning, I could tell from the dreams and visions she shared with me that the Lord was calling her to be a proactive evangelist. She has resisted this idea, preferring to just be an example and not speak about Jesus, not want to actively enter into someone else’s rebirth and spiritual growth.

She came to me in distress because a 16 year old was pestering her for answers and help. She had hung up on the girl, refusing to help, saying that she could and should hear God for herself . Since I have been down a similar path in accepting the role of spiritual father, I recognized the symptoms of a reluctant parent.

For those of you who are not aware, when I was asked to work for the school, I was specifically requested to be ‘spiritual father’ to faculty and staff. This was five years ago, and I was extremely uncomfortable with this idea. One of my friends pointed out that for the past 20 years the Lord has been bringing young people into my life and I have in fact been acting as spiritual parent to them. In nearly every Youth With A Mission school and multi-day seminar with young people, there are some who request to call me ‘Daddy.’ Current group is my Monday evening disciple group. They call themselves my disciples (the word in Indonesian is the same for student and disciple), they call me ‘uncle’ as do youth of several different generations here and in the Philippines. Some of their children call me ‘Lolo’ in PI or ‘Opa’ which is grandpa in the respective countries. At any rate, I was a very reluctant parent, though I have gotten used to it over the years.

I could see that the Lord was thrusting the young woman into the ministry which she refused to initiate. She was very uncomfortable with the girl hanging on to her. She was not willing to make the commitment and pay the cost that saving lives costs. After talking with her about these things and praying for her, she had a new perspective of this girl and also of her responsibilities, and even more, of her desires toward this young girl.

How about you? Do you know that there is a parallel between the physical and the spiritual worlds? Did you know that just as in the physical, babies born are expected to grow up, get married and have children, so spiritual babies are expected to grow up and nurture spiritual children. Are you a reluctant parent, or even worse, a child who refuses to grow up and take responsibilities of adulthood spiritually?

Did you know that it is Shepherds job to make shepherds, but sheep are supposed to make sheep? Most churches expect paid staff (shepherds) to do the evangelism (making sheep). Not their job. Think about that one for awhile.

GBU

SHEPHERDS AND SHEEP - TRAUMA

2007-01-16T23:40:00.000-08:00

Prov 14:4 Where no oxen are, the crib is clean:

but much increase is by the strength of the ox.

Christian life would be much easier if it weren't for those other Christians!

Some background: One of the things I do is work with teachers and staff at a Christian school. Among other things, I counsel and pray for them. This school year has seen some great changes.

Last school year, there were four distinct schools. Now they are grouped into lower school and high school, with a head of schools for each group. These heads of schools are both Australian. The school and most of the staff are Indonesian, as are the students. The heads of schools have some really different ideas about what to do and how to do it. It is producing trauma.

A person came to me and started crying on my shoulder: one of her tasks had been torn away from her and given to another, without consultation or planning! This was not professional, not fair, not right! She was hurt. She was experiencing trauma.

As we talked, it emerged that in fact the task that had been taken away was a task that she really didn’t like. It also came forth that this really produced some relief for her overload. In fact, the event seemed like a perfect answer to her previous prayers! But . . . "it isn’t right!" "It isn’t fair!"

One of the secular management seminars I attended long ago presented a question that has stuck with me, and served me well in my Christian walk. Would you rather be right (with your facts and circumstances) or free?
In the case of this woman, and in fact the majority of cases in which I hear complaints about ‘fairness’ the event actually was an answer to prayer, just not exactly how they had pictured it. The traumatic event actually frees them from unwanted burdens.

James 1:2-4 says to count it joy when trials (trauma) comes upon you, for it works . . . until we become perfect, lacking nothing. If only we could hear and receive this teaching, we could look with a better (less defensive) eye to many problems and see how they are actually blessings (not even in disguise, except for our blindness) and answers to prayer! If we could remember the question Would you rather be right, or free? And choose Freedom in Christ and stop grumbling and complaining, we would escape much trauma and enter much joy (Phil 2:14 applies - do everything without complaining or arguing).

The other side of the coin is that often Christians are unthinking and unprofessional in their dealings with one another, hurting others unnecessarily just because they are inconsiderate. We should be careful not to be a stumbling block to a Christian who has not yet discovered how to be Free From Trauma in Christ!

THE SEMINARS

2006-12-27T12:18:00.000-08:00

The Seminars that I do for pastors and church leaders have been developed over the past 20 years. My very first seminars were in 1985 for pastors in the Assemblies of God churches in Hawaii. Topic was Team Building. My seminars are designed for three days, but can be shortened to just 6 hours. Of course in the longer seminars ability to apply the principles and techniques can be practiced and become much more practical and realistic.

My seminars range from very practical management topics (such as Time Management, Team Building, Small Group Dynamics, Conflict Resolution, etc) to practical church-goer activation (Healing prayer, Holy Spirit and Gifts of the Spirit) to basic Christian doctrine and practice (Born Again, Spirit Filled, Spiritual Maturity). All are aimed at transformation rather that education (though both take place), and at replacing bad habits of thought, speach, and practice with Godly habits through enlightenment (shining the light of the Word of God) upon lives. I am a very practically oriented person.

Most common testimony from seminars: "Now I understand."
Favorite testimony: "I have been rebuked and am set free."

--HK--

SHEPHERDS AND SHEEP - CREATING YOUR LIFE

2006-12-19T21:28:00.000-08:00

Note: This story was carried in an earlier email report, but I wanted to post something on Shepherds and Sheep in keeping with our INSIDE OUT theme this week.
James 1:2-8 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.
The first week of December I was in Central Java. Among other activities was a one-day seminar with pastors from poor areas. Average congregation size was under 30. It is a hard life. Our host was a church which gathers these pastors (there were 133 in attendance this day) for teaching, encouragement, and for handouts of food and clothing.

My understanding is that you get the promises of the Bible you can believe. Promises are for believers. Unfortunately, I have noticed in the twenty years of doing seminars for pastors and church leaders that what they preach and what they live are not quite the same. As we see from James (above) this double minded man will receive nothing from the Lord. Hence they live in poverty rather than the abundance God promises believers.

One testimony I received after being with them was "You shocked them." Even though I shocked them, they liked it, and have invited me back! One way I shock them:
First, they confess they believe Psalm 23 verse 1 which says in Indonesian I have no lack. Then, after distracting them from that (yes, I do set them up) I ask them if any of them have any needs (lack something, in Indonesian). They have been programmed to beg and expect from outside visitors, especially Americans handouts. In fact they were attending primarily for the handouts!

Of course, in response, they with nearly one voice were lifting hands and calling out their affirmation of being in great need. Then I stop and remind them of their earlier statement that they have no needs, and now they are claiming great needs. I ask them which is true?

Sheep and shepherds alike often profess from the safety of the church sanctuary what they believe, yet when it comes to being bold enough to put these beliefs in practice, there is a different tune. James says that faith without works is dead, because it indicates a double minded person, and a double minded person will receive nothing from the Lord.

Check it out for yourself, in your own life. Are you receiving, living in the abundance promised by God, or in lack? Living in lack looks at what can be seen and sees that it is not enough (it doesn't matter how much it is). Living in abundance looks at what God says you have, and then goes and finds it since it often can't be seen at first.

INSIDE OUT living - knowing that what God promises, he has already supplied. Shepherds and sheep alike often fail to live the abundant life because they live outside in. They are backward-looking, not forward looking, and allow the past experience to control their expectations, rather than expecting the promises of God to show up when needed.

Ministry to Church - Welcome

2006-12-13T22:50:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Shepherds and Sheep