Stomp!

Note: This is a fun, stand up and get out of the pew type worship song. There is a word in the first line of each of the stanzas that has a very brief pause after it (just after "here" in line one). "Stomp!" means just that, stomp your foot. The octave goes up when singing the chorus (Oh glory glory) then drops down again to sing the next stanza.

Oh Lord our Lord here your people are before You
(Stomp!)
Yes we are gathered to exalt your name
(Stomp! Stomp!)
Your glory's brighter than a thousand sunsets
(Stomp!)
Your beauty's wonder we will all proclaim
(Stomp! Stomp!)

  Oh glory glory singing hallelujah
  (Stomp!)
  Oh glory glory to the King of Kings
  (Stomp! Stomp!)
  There is no other who is like you Jesus
  (Stomp!)
  Your mercies greater than all other things
  (Stomp! Stomp!)

Oh Lord our Lord see us marching as an army
(Stomp!)
Yes we are marching to exalt your name
(Stomp! Stomp!)
Your blood is stronger than all sins of darkness
(Stomp!)
You can make clean even the deepest stain
(Stomp! Stomp!)

  Oh glory glory singing hallelujah
  (Stomp!)
  All glory glory to the King of Kings
  (Stomp! Stomp!)
  There is no other who is like you Jesus
  (Stomp!)
  Your mercies greater than all other things
  (Stomp! Stomp!)

Oh Lord our Lord hey the victory is before us
(Stomp!)
Yes we are coming to exalt your name
(Stomp! Stomp!)
Your love goes higher than the tallest mountains
(Stomp!)
Your free the captives and you heal the lame
(Stomp! Stomp!)

  Oh glory glory singing hallelujah
  (Stomp!)
  Oh glory glory to the King of Kings
  (Stomp! Stomp!)
  There is no other who is like you Jesus
  (Stomp!)
  Your mercies greater than all other things
  (Stomp! Stomp!)
  Your mercies greater than all other things
  (Stomp!)

Review of - The Spiritual Gifts Handbook

The Spiritual Gifts Handbook was co-authored by Protestant Randy Clark and Catholic Mary Healy.

Clark is an author of 40 books and perhaps is best known for his leadership of The Toronto Blessing, which began in the 1990's and is considered one of the greatest spiritual revivals of our time. God placed a powerful spiritual mantel upon him to empower others to minister in the spiritual gifts. He continues to have an impactful world wide ministry.

Healy was involved early on in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal which began in 1967. I think she helped author the Life In The Spirit manual which was and maybe still is a powerful tool to lead Catholics to commit their lives to the Lordship of Jesus and to show them how to surrender their lives to the out flowing of His Holy Spirit. She is a professor of Scripture at a Catholic seminary, has authored other books and conducts healing meetings world wide as well.

It seems that the editors of Chosen, a division of Baker Books (from whom I received a copy to review) put these two together to write an instruction book about the spiritual gifts. In that regard they have done an adequate job covering most of the bases and the book is enriched by many personal accounts of the operation of the different gifts. To appeal to her Catholic audience Healy includes stories of historical instances of the operation of the spiritual gifts from various Catholic saints.

If my review were to end here I would give this four stars out of five. A person not familiar with the gifts of the Holy Spirit and how they are to operate personally and in community will learn a lot. Catholics in particular will be encouraged that the Catholic Church not only has a history of the operation of the spiritual gifts but that they are both for today and are for everyone, not just for famous saints or priests and nuns.

At this point however, from the perspective of one who came to know Jesus personally and was filled with the Holy Spirit through the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in 1972 and then left the Catholic Church for doctrinal reasons 10 years later, I would like to go a little further and discuss one problem with the move of the Holy Spirit in the Catholic Church today.

It is my opinion that although the gifts of the Holy Spirit are recognized by the Catholic Church and many Catholics are now operating in those gifts, there exists in Catholicism substitutes for the Holy Spirit which either restrict or confuse ones understanding of Scripture, thus allowing for doctrinal errors to creep in. Doctrine among believers should not deny our fellowship with each other, but it does make it a lot more challenging.

In this book Mary Healy tells a story of a prophecy given by Ralph Martin at a large ecumenical conference held in Kansas City in 1977. She relates this as an example of how the Holy Spirit may use a prophetic word to bring conviction to the heart. In his prophetic word Martin repeats several times the phrase "The body of my Son is broken" which was of course a charge against disunity in the Body of Christ. People all over the stadium began weeping in response.

Well OK, it truly is a disgrace that Christians avoid having fellowship with each other and further even go out of their way to attack other believers who deviate even a little from their orthodoxy on a whole variety of issues, most of which are non-essential to salvation. As believers we should be united in our desire that the world hear the good news that Jesus in the way to salvation and that he has poured out His Holy Spirit in power in us to demonstrate His love and grace toward all who would run toward His open arms.

But let me tell you the rest of the story. The lay leadership of the Charismatic Renewal greatly desired this unity yet at the same time they had a tremendous desire to be seen as "good Catholics" in the eyes of their bishops. Although the renewal continues in the Catholic Church today the Kansas City conference marks both it's apex and it's ecumenical decline. In a nutshell here were the problems.

First, the Catholic Church is run by a huge bureaucracy that is resistant to change. Their natural desire is to absorb any spiritual movements, find them a comfortable place within the Church and then isolate that spiritual virus so it doesn't infect the doctrine of the Church or the comfort of those that run it. Thus the Renewal leadership's desire for acceptance by their Church also meant becoming less guided by the Holy Spirit. My guess is that this scenario doesn't just apply to the Catholic Church.

Second, an important part of Catholic tradition and teaching is devotion to Mary. The problem here is two fold. Catholicism ascribes to Mary powers and authority that Protestants believe rightly belonging to the Holy Spirit. And devotion to Mary is seen as an adoption of pagan beliefs and practice by the Catholic Church in it's early years, which was then greatly emphasized as a response to the modernization of society in it's later years. After Kansas City some of the early leaders in the Charismatic Renewal started to become more devoted to Mary, even going so far as to endorse what I personally believe are the demonic manifestations found in places like Medajugory. So how one views Mary does present a hurdle to fellowship.

It is good news that Randy Clark and Mary Healy were able to minister in power together for a month at healing conferences held in Brasil. The out flowing of the power of the Holy Spirit is less dependent on orthodoxy and more dependent on a person's willingness to yield to Him. I'm sure we all have barriers in our lives or doctrine that restrict the Spirit's moving. May this be the year we overcome them. 

The King Of Heaven

In Babylon were gardens hung
resembling walls of Eden
with lilies bright and iris light
red hummingbirds were feeding
tall terraces breathed in the mist
rolling out deep fragrant chimes
no other splendor could compare
in Nebuchadnezzar's times

One morning he admired all
proclaimed his awesome power
my kingdom, beauty, majesty
above the world I tower
just as those words escaped his mouth
he heard the Most High saying
your sovereignty has been removed
you will a beast be braying

The dream said he was like a tree
branches filled the heavens wide
rich fruits for hungry beast and bird
cooling shade for every tribe
but now it all would be chopped down
on it's stump an iron band
drenched every morning by the dew
long nails grow on feet and hand

The king was humbled seven years
an animal thinking of grass
who worries not of gold and silk
nor empires that never last
at sentence end he raised his eyes
blessed and praised the God Most High
whose kingdom is eternal still
pride could never tell you why

The Tree Of Life

The lovely tree where I built my nest
stood shoulders, head above the rest
and on it's branches I could see
fruits leading to eternity

The tree beside held more appeal
which angels gathered in their zeal
to procure wisdom in the night
the tasty fruit gave deep insight

This was forbidden to the man
because for him God had a plan
to guide his heart, from that the mind
to change it up would cause a bind

The serpent was a cunning beast
he set for man an easy feast
by offering this tricky play
he asked the woman - did God say?

From ancient past I send this tweet
be careful of the fruit you eat
if flesh and knowledge is your tree
you'll never find eternity

If You Knew My Jesus

If you knew my Jesus
you'd call me with joy
say your sins are forgiven
you are a new boy
and your heart's overflowing
you can't hold it in
and your soul needs to sing out
the new life within

And I'll know what your saying
I'll have to agree
when I thought I was with it
but then I was free
and the world had to hear how
His Spirit changed me
from the junk I'd been saving
there's now victory

And there's really no limit
to whom He'll make new
if you want to begin it
then here's what you do
just surrender the lordship
of your life for His
He will love you so dearly
and show you what is

And we'll have a party
invite all we know
just to share about Jesus
with our overflow
and the rivers that flow out
will refresh the crowd
when we share about Jesus
and make it real loud

Do Greater Things - A Book Review

Have just finished the book Do Greater Things by Robby Dawkins  which I received from it's publisher Creation House. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in building up your confidence and faith in praying effectively for the sick and hurting. It reminds me very much of the books I read early in my faith walk over 45 years ago by Charles and Francis Hunter. They made praying for the sick seem so obvious and natural that everyone should be involved in doing it and expecting that God would indeed answer.

This is less a book about the theology of healing prayer and more about examples from the ministry of Mr. Dawkins that demonstrate the practical applications of how praying for the needs of others can be accomplished. Here are a few things that are talked about which resonate with me. And this is how I interpret them.

The first is that God has given us the authority to pray for the needs of others in Jesus name. That means that because we are a representative of Christ we can speak directly to the condition ourselves. Our prayer then does not say something like - Oh God, please heal this person's leg - but instead goes more like - I command that leg to receive divine healing now (in the name of Jesus). The same stance would be used in dealing with evil spirits. We must use the authority we have been given based on what Jesus has already done for us.

The second is that we should be interested first in the person and second in the condition they have. And if we are interested in the person then we engage them in finding out what hurts where. After they identify their level of pain we pray and then check to see if there has been any improvement and to what level. Then we keep at it until complete healing or until it's obvious there is no more that can be done at that time.

And the third thing that stood out to me is that although everyone does not have the gift of healing every Christian does have the authority of Christ in them to pray for others with some success. Many times we do not ask others if we can pray for them because of the fear of being in some way rejected by that person.

This book brings out two things here. One is that almost all people appreciate it when someone asks if they can pray for them. If nothing happens they really don't get upset or think less of God. Two is that although it is our responsibility to pray it is God's responsibility to effect the authority He has given us. Our faith is in who God is, trusting that He loves both us and the person we are praying for.

Again, this is an easy read which is both faith building and action inducing.

Can You Hear The Trumpet Sounding?

I've been working for some time on a post explaining how a Christian can support Donald Trump for and as President. However it's going to stay in my files at least for now. The problem is that to do the subject proper it ended up being quite long and even after editing down I still find other points I want to add.

So instead of getting that you now have a chance to read a poem I wrote about our Prez. It doesn't go into abortion, judges or Israel (my hot button topics). It doesn't discuss foreign or domestic policy. It does though come from the angle about a guy who was not an insider and not a politician but ran because he had a vision of what America could be. It is this person that connects with the average Joe in the streets.

Can You Hear The Trumpet Sounding? 

There once was a builder brought up in Queens
promoted himself as the greatest of things
gold plated fixtures and gambling halls
sold his silk ties at golf courses and malls

Looked for the beauty in women and hair
married again and still had an affair
made deals with TV and never seemed tired
love to tell celebs, hey buddy you're fired

But even his money and fast private jets
wasn't enough for the insider sets
who hated his brashness and thought him quite crude
looking down their thin noses at his attitude

Yet this guy grew up with a love for our land
and saw how the dealers would work underhand
enriching themselves while still talking so polite
with sweet platitudes hiding knifes in the night

They had no respect for religion or creed
talked of the poor man though blinded by greed
the swamp creatures lusted for insider power
and hated a system where man built a tower

For all of his faults but with all of his flair
he offered the people a deal that was fair
I'll wall up the borders, take care of the vets
make better deals with no ifs ands or yets

I'll build up our forces, make friends with the Jews
we'll put in good judges with conservative views
clean coal will get dug and fracked oil will flow
our best days are coming just thought you should know

I'll lower your taxes to bring better jobs
stop losing to others and dry up the sobs
we'll clean up corruption and jail dirty birds
your leaders have dropped you like little bird turds

The prelates and pundents all laughed till they hurt
they howled and yowled while fist throwing dirt
he's racist and sexist, has no chance in hell
we don't know a person who'll buy what he'd sell

Election night came and the party turned glum
it seemed that the nation had chosen someone
who'd shake up the system that everyone loathed
except for the people who weren't as well clothed

It must be the Russians who tampered with votes
collusion with Putin sang thousand of throats
they hammered and bammered for more than a year
with negative news for their fellows to hear

But we in the heartland are not dumb as bricks
we're on to race baiting and media tricks
we cherish our churches and rights to our guns
and thank those who serve us both daughters and sons

And flawed as he is we see courage and truth
with promises kept and a man not aloof
whose smarter than them though they haven't a clue
just thought you should hear what we know to be true