Love Wins

A couple of years ago a guy whom I will call Sam went into the local Family Christian Bookstore to look for a gift. Sam was about 30 years old at the time, single, and gay. As he was heading to the checkout line he noticed a painting of Jesus that was displayed on the wall. While he was looking at the picture he started to cry - didn't know why he was crying, had no apparent reason to be crying but he just couldn't stop.

Standing behind him in line was a lady who asked Sam if he was alright. Sam told her that it just happened when he started looking at the painting of Jesus. The lady said a few kind words to Sam and invited him to her church. Sam came the next Sunday, the lady introduced him to a few people including the pastor, Sam came again the next week and he surrendered his life to Jesus.

A few weeks later Sam noticed a few strange changes. The color of the bedroom in his apartment was lavender and he didn't like the color anymore. He went out to lunch with a friend and thought the waitress was attractive. He had never had that kind of feeling for any woman before.

A couple of months later he attended a Freedom In Christ workshop where one of the counselors was an elder at the church he was now attending regularly. Freedom In Christ is a deliverance ministry based on the ministry of Neil Anderson, an evangelical pastor. A lot of times when a person experiences trauma or great fear, commits certain types of sin or feels greatly rejected, perhaps even as an unwanted infant in the womb, these events create openings for evil spirits to latch onto an individual.

A normal session involves going through certain areas of a person's life, identifying what the Word of God says about those areas and letting the Holy Spirit reveal to the person if this is an area that needs attention. If it is the person will verbalize that they agree with the wisdom that was given from scripture, will confess any part they might have had opposed to the will of God in that area and will renounce the action or thought and will forgive anyone else who may have wronged them in that area. This destroys most footholds that evil spirits have and they often leave as easy as breathing out a little bad gas. The final step for the counselor is to provide the person solid scripture based advice on how to stay free.

Usually, because everyone's life is complicated there are several sessions needed to fully cover everything. With Sam it was different. The spiritual oppressions were very deep and intertwined and there were a lot of tears and emotions. Most of the other counselors had never seen any thing quite like it. The session went on for over 6 hours and by the end of it Sam was more free than he had ever been.

Personally I have not met Sam but I do know the lady who was behind Sam at the checkout counter, the pastor and the elder. The reason I share this today is because homosexual, transgender and any other side area of the LBGT world and lifestyle have at their root a spiritual deception that leads away from the will of God and toward misery, inprisionment and finally death. My heart aches for all those so bound as well as for those who go beyond love and acceptance of the person and think that by approving of that life style they are adding something positive.

I will not give here a listing of all that the Word of God says about homosexual activity. It should simply be enough to say that scripture from beginning to end is consistent in saying that ANY sexual activity outside of a marriage between a man and a woman is not the will of God. Desires, no matter how early evidenced, do not change the Word of God.

There is a lie, crafted by the enemy, that portrays God as angry and distant. The enemy tells us that God does not want us to be happy while at the same time making sure that we feel condemned and powerless. The enemy imparts fear and then uses that very fear to drive us away from the love of God. The enemy makes this rebellion outwardly look attractive while at the same time concealing how awful and depraved it truly is.

I remember talking to a cousin of my wife who is a doctor. He had been late to the reception because one of his clients had AIDS and needed some special help at that time. When I made some (to him) stupid remark about being careful he told me I had no idea what type of life these people were living. The average young gay male has hundreds of different partners at all sorts of different locations. That was many years ago and perhaps because of AIDS things have changed a little, maybe.

The average first sexual encounter for gay men is at 12 1/2 years old compared to 16 1/2 years old for heterosexuals. The average gay man is 3 times more likely to have been sexually abused as a child then a heterosexual, Because many gay men will not list their early encounters as abuse if they experienced sexual pleasure with it the actual statistic for homosexuals is 7 times that of heterosexuals.

When we are talking about gay marriage you should be aware that a study of over 500 married gay couples found that over 50% had sex outside their marriage with their partners consent. Another 30% had other sexual encounters without their partners consent. Gay men, just like heterosexuals, and especially as they grow older want to have a stable loving relationship with another person. But most gay men still struggle with lust for different and exciting sexual encounters.

Love wins when we align ourselves with the One who loves us. We find out who we are in our manhood when we find out who we are in Christ. Here are some selections from the First Letter of John:

This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you,
that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.

If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness,
we lie and do not practice the truth;

but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light,
we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

By this we know that we have come to know Him,
If we keep His commandments.

Do not love the world nor the things of the world.
If anyone loves the world the love of the Father is not in him.

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes 
and the boastful pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world.

The world is passing away, and also its lusts;
but the one who does the will of God lives forever.

See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us,
that we would be called children of God; and such we are.

The one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning.
The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.

We have come to know and have believed the love that God has for us.
God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

By this love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgement;
Because as He is, so also are we in this world.

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear . . .
We love, because He first loved us.

So there you have it. Love, true love, always wins.

Through The Looking Glass

Tweedledum and Tweedledee

Agreed to have a battle;

For Tweedledum said Tweedledee

Had spoiled his nice new rattle.

Just then flew down a monstrous crow,

As black as a tar-barrel;

Which frightened both the heros so,

They quite forgot their quarrel.

English nursery rhyme based on Through The Looking Glass

Sometimes I get asked if I ever give driving tests to any really odd characters. Well, honestly, yes, it happens all to often. I have seen every type of piercing and hair fashion and tattoo art and style of clothing. People show up for their tests barefoot, without a driver's permit, high and not smelling to good. Every week there is a collection of ex cons, foreigners from places I never knew existed and non conformists who have not had a license for decades because they did not want to pay a hundred dollar fine and the State pissed them off but after 15 years they finally realized that the State always wins. 

Last week I was out on a drive and I get a call from Jackie whom I am working with that day and she tells me that she just wants me to know that my next client who is there waiting has a very large knife strapped to his belt. My wife was worried for me. How nice!

I greet Jordan who is 37 years old, shaped a lot like either Tweedledum or Tweedledee. His hair starts in the middle of the top of his head and goes straight and long back, he has those things that look like large rubber washers in the middle of his ear lobes, a long red goatee, and the aforementioned giant knife on his side.

When I tell Jordan that he needs to put his knife in the back before we begin our drive he is very agreeable, pulling the weapon out of it's scabbard and laying it on the seat. It is then that I notice the length of the handle is about 10 inches and the size of the blade is about 2 1/2 inches. A glorified box cutter.

As we are driving along I notice on Jordan's left arm a lone tattoo of the old cartoon character Underdog ("neither bird not plane nor even frog, it's just little o me, Underdog!") I say to Jordan - "You have an Underdog tattoo! Why on earth do you have an Underdog tattoo?"

"It reminds me of my mother" he says. "We used to watch that together when I was a kid."

Then to my surprise Jordan shows me the companion tattoo on his right arm. "This is Super Chicken." Getting quite excited now Jordan chuckles to himself and blurts out - "They used to make Super Chicken do some really crazy stuff man!" It is not often that I am speechless but this was one of them.

Perhaps you live in a nice boring world where every thing is sane and predictable and you're not chasing some crazy rabbit carrying a time piece. Mean while, I wait for my next client.

Then And Now

I had quite a surprise this week, but first a little background.

It is recorded in the second chapter of Acts that on the day of Pentecost 120 people were gathered together in one place in Jerusalem and "all were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit was giving them utterance".  Devout Jews from every nation heard in their own languages those men and women "speaking of the mighty deeds of God".

Peter stands with the other apostles and explains to the crowd what has just happened;

"This is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel; 'And it shall be in the last days God says that I will pour forth of My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and your daughters shall prophecy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even on my bond slaves, both men and women, I will in those days pour forth of My Spirit, and they shall prophesy' ".

The gifts of the Holy Spirit, including speaking in other tongues and prophesying, enabled the early Church to grow and mature. There are numerous passages in Acts which show that tongues and prophesy were considered a normal part of any Christians life. Unfortunately history records that these and many of the other gifts of the Holy Spirit and how they are supposed to operate personally and corporately gradually became more and more unusual and less and less understood.

The gifts of tongues and the gifts of prophesy are much more varied than just speaking a language that other men understand or foretelling future events. Praise the Lord the operation and understanding has been restored in these days to a large part of the Church. And it began to happen in a very interesting way.

Any time there is a great revival, where hundreds and thousands and even millions of men and women come under conviction of sin and surrender their lives to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, it has been the work of the Holy Spirit that inspires and equips the leaders, that draws the crowds, that convicts of sin, that sets free the prisoner, that heals and delivers, that creates the desire and gives the ability to live a holy life, that proclaims truth and rejects error and that inspires the joy that only the redeemed can understand.

Beginning in the 1700's there were revivals in different parts of the world that had evidence of the operation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, including speaking in tongues and speaking prophetically. But the idea that these gifts should be commonplace in the Church had not yet taken hold. In the later part of the 1800's there were a number of groups and ministers who did begin to believe that gifts such as tongues were for today as well as speculating that tongues would actually be a sign that a believer had also been filled with an infusion of the power of the Holy Spirit.

Then in 1901 an interesting thing happened. Let me quote here from The International Directory of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements in it's biography of Charles Parham;

"In the summer of 1900 Parham embarked on a tour of Holiness religious centers. The focus of his 12 week journey was Frank W. Sandford's Holiness commune in Shiloh, ME. Impressed with the emphasis throughout the Holiness movement on a "latter rain" outpouring of the Holy Spirit, Parham sought for himself a greater personal manifestation of this power. Through Sanford, he heard isolated reports of xenolalic tongues as missionaries. (My Note: "xenolalic" means actually speaking in a language that can be understood, as in Acts 2. Also, isn't it interesting that even today mainline denominational missionaries go abroad and get the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Just last month one of the main Baptists branches allowed their missionaries to continue to speak in tongues 'as a prayer language'.) Privately he drew great significance from the discovery.

Parham returned to Topeka in Sept. 1900 and optimistically secured quarters for a Bible school to prepare prospective missionaries for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit power. In an elaborate old mansion on the edge of town , he taught his students the essentials of Holiness doctrine and challenged them to search for the true evidence of Holy Spirit reception. He strategically directed them to the account of Acts 2 where xenolalic tongues sparked the initial phase of Christian growth, and on Jan. 1, 1901, one of Parham's students (Agnes Ozman) experienced the expected blessing and sign. During the next few days, Parham and about half of his student body of 34 were likewise baptized."

Now here is the exciting part, at least for me. My name is Robert LaBarge. In 1659 a Robert LaBerge emigrated from France to New France (Canada), the only person by that surname to have done so. One of his descendants, a Joseph LaBerge, in 1806 canoed from the Quebec area of New France to St. Louis, changing his name to LaBarge. He is my direct ancestor. In the book mentioned above it's biography of Agnes Ozman says that she was assured a place in Pentecostal history when she became the first to speak in tongues at Charles Parham's Bethel Bible College. After giving her background it goes on to say that subsequent to her tongues experience in 1901 "she returned to city mission work. In Lincoln in 1906 she heard about Pentecostalism, related her earlier experience, and identified with the emergent movement. In 1911 she married Pentecostal preacher Philemon LaBerge. The two traveled about the country holding meetings where ever possible. In 1917 LaBerge affiliated with the Assemblies of God, receiving credentials as an evangelist."

For years I had thought that perhaps I was the first LaBarge who had left the Catholic Church (although I had received my Charismatic experience while a Catholic) for the green pastures of evangelical thought. Now I find out that, like a lot of things apparently, I was a little slow on the uptake. It sort of makes you feel that you are part of something in God's plan that is much bigger and more complex than one would ever realize.

Agnes and Philemon LaBerge were at the beginning of a movement that according to Pew research in 2011 now numbers over 500 million Pentecostals and Charismatics world wide. The Spirit is moving, lives are being changed, the gifts have been restored and it is now common place for men and women to pray in the Spirit. I speak or sing in tongues several times throughout the day, every day. It's a family thing.

Fiction Meets Fact

This Sunday Jackie was away watching some of our grand kids so I was able to sit back and do some channel surfing. I stopped for a few moments to watch a scene from an old James Bond movie. In it Sean Connery as Bond rings an apartment bell and a female voice invites him in. Bond is pretending to be a man named Franks who was supposed to pick up a load of diamonds from the woman to smuggle them out of the country.

The woman greats Bond/Franks while dressed stylishly in her underwear, tells him to pour himself a drink, takes his empty glass and goes back to her bedroom/lair to get dressed, dusts the glass for fingerprints then takes a photo of the prints and opens up an armoire revealing a large screen TV/computer, inserts the photo into a print reader and gets the confirmation on the screen that the prints match that of the diamond smuggler Franks. Putting on a black lacy see through covering over her underwear she heads back to Bond/Franks and returns the glass but Bond's keen sense of smell notices that his prints have been I D'd. Later on we see Bond talking on the phone with spy gadget genius Q thanking him for the fake latex print we see him pealing off his thumb.

Monday morning before Jackie and I leave for work we get an urgent call from our boss telling us that we need to get finger printed TODAY!!! He instructs us to head to the main office where we will get the proper forms and when we get there he will tell us where to go to get the job done. Every 5 years people like us who conduct road tests for the State of Michigan need to get re-fingerprinted and evidently the person from the company in charge of maintaining our files was a little lax in letting us know that the 5 years were up.

Since Jackie is still in her underwear I tell her to put on something nice and we soon head out and pick up our forms at the office. We get there just as the boss does and when we head inside there is another guy on the phone with the place that does the fingerprinting trying to make sure that we can get in ASAP. As we are rushing to the location Jackie fills out our forms and asks me how to spell Caucasian. "Is it t-i-a-n- or s-i-a-n?" We agree on s-i-a-n and find the office which fortunately is only a slight detour from our regular route into work.

The fingerprint place is in a suite at an office building. There is a front parking lot and a back parking lot. Jackie tells me to park up front but since I have been there before I head to the lower back lot which I think might be faster because I know that the entry ways in front go to different businesses. The back lot has construction going on and is empty and I must do as my sweet wife kindly first suggested and go back and park up front.

We take about 4 turns through several hall ways up and down stairs and eventually find the fingerprint office. The door is open but the guy is not there. He does get back in a few moments and we each get a turn to place our fingers on a print reader. These are displayed on a computer screen not that much different that the one in the Bond movie (well, theirs did need an large armoire to hold and ours were on a thin screen desk top plastic swivel base). I was the first to go and mine took about 10 minutes because the print reader was having a little problem getting a good shot. Perhaps it was the fact that the guy was standing next to me, hip to hip while holding my hand and my extended fingers were a little tight. When he got to Jackie the machine went "blip, blip, blip" and hers took about 2 minutes. I did tell the guy to watch it because this was the first time in over 43 years that any man but me had held those dainty little hands.

Fingerprinting done I drive about 80 mph to make it to our test side on time and then inform my first client after he is doing 30 in a 25 zone that he needs to stay at the speed limit or below or he may fail his driving test. My next client is a black woman, um, African American woman, who happens to tell me while on the test that she has a Caucasian uncle. "Caucasian" I mumble to myself, "C - a - u - c - a - S - I -A - N."