Preparing for 2015

In the mountains with our family, all 15 of our immediate family members are here and we see God's Thumb print on us. Reflection time this morning due to family out skiing and our choice to not ski until this afternoon (the spirit is willing but the flesh.....). 

This trip is one of those special blessings due to Christian Heritage Church and Great Plains Conference giving us the money to take our family on a vacation. There are no words to express my family's deep appreciation. There have been tons of giggles and memories made. 

As 2015 comes into focus, there are a few things that are glaring on the radar and I want to share four of them with you! 

#1 - Our ideas of Miracles. Let's look at some things:

• In a recent blog the idea of cleansing of sin came along with the blind seeing, the deaf hearing and the lame walking. This will be more necessary than ever in the coming year. 
• Miracles must be acknowledged and God given the praise for them. Every birth of a child both spiritual and natural births are not to be taken lightly. By simplifying new-birth to a prayer recited and no real time to focus on repentance and conversion, we have put spiritual births into the hands of the one leading the prayer. The natural birth of a baby is put into the hands of a doctor and we fail to acknowledge God's involvement in the process many times. 
• Miracles will come with a price tag! Mother Mary had the distinct honor of carrying the Savior of the World but had to walk in shame, disgrace and rejection. She called out to the Lord, but He appeared to be silent. He did not reveal His Son to the multitudes, not even the immediate family with the exception of a few. What about Joseph and his embarrassment? How many of his 'friends' believed his wife conceived by the Holy Spirit? Are you prepared for the miracles to separate you? 

#2 - Our concept of God must be defined by Scripture, not culture, not religion, not our assumptions and not what 'we caught' when we were 'taught'. 

• God is a holy God, yes, but a just God also. 
• The mandates of scripture in our deeds and lifestyles are meaningless without a fear of God. Fear must not control us, however, fear must keep us on the straight and narrow. 
• Our living must be a true reflection of His Kingdom, not a set of religious rules. 

#3 - Our willingness to follow Christ must include an understanding that He allows or orchestrates pain in our life. 

• Jesus was born in a hostile world, 
• Genocide followed his birth, how much blood ran due to His birth. 
• Why didn't the Father simply take Herod off the throne?
• We are going to experience more and more hostility in this 'post-Christian' society we live in. 
• We must stop our giving the enemy all the credit. God is in control and has a major plan. 
• We must stop focusing our frustration and pain because God does NOT fix everything. 
• Embrace the 'refiner's' fire! It is hot but it purifies. 
• Yield to the 'potter's wheel' - It is painful but He is preparing you for His plan. 

#4 - Lastly, we must take our 'purpose' in life seriously. 

• If God truly has a plan for our life (which I believe He does), we must accept it whole heartedly. 
• Recognize materialism, earthly wealth and worldly status may not be the key to Kingdom success. 
• Currently, the study of poverty, poor people in scripture has me fascinated. Not looking at it through the eyes of our American culture; religion or political views but Biblical. 
• Look at the church in Smyrna, Revelations 2
• ....this is the message from the one who is the First and Last, who was dead but is now alive: 9. "I know about your suffering and your poverty - but you are rich!

Let us rejoice in the years we have experienced but let us not lose heart, if it does not remain the same. Let us prepare to face more with the Joy - Peace and Fulness of His grace. 

Let us be prepared to live a life that SHINES with the Hope of the Gospel. 

Let our attitude be as Christ.... 

Even in intense pain, may people be able to draw from us spiritually. Hanging on the cross with His back beaten, nails in his hands and feet, crown of thrones on His head and experiencing total rejection, a lost man saw a 'HOPE' in Him and cried out to be included in His Kingdom. He was not seeing a Kingdom of ease, abundance, deliverance, etc. but a Kingdom of Eternal Hope! 

Blessings

Gary and Carolyn

Christmas M25 Style

CHRISTMAS MISSION:M25 STYLE

Christmas eve morning brings Biker Sunday / Toys For Tots to a conclusion. On September 28, 2014 thousands of people lined up to bring toys for Biker Sunday / Toys For Tots! An incredible sight to see, rough and tough looking people carrying dolls, little trucks and even dressed like Santa Claus. On December 24, 2014, 60-75 people gathered in a chilly fellowship hall, broke into teams and grabbed the toys for over 170 children. Keith Burd, Ministry Co-ordinator for Hard CORE Motorcycle Ministry and his family head this event. They work and plan, get the routes divided, work with the Marines or in the past couple of years, the Navy, connect the givers with the receivers of these toys. The toys are all bagged when we arrive and ready for delivery, due to Keith working with volunteers to separate a trailer loaded with toys into separate bags with a name on it. 

This year there was a complete line of brand-new sparkling bicycles plus bags of toys everywhere. Matt Lawlis is holding one of the bicycles to be given away. 

A family from Kansas join us when they heard of this great event. 

A couple and friends of Christian Heritage Church dressed the part and was a delightful touch.

Carolyn and I were among those who braved the weather to be 'Santa on a Harley'. There have been Mom's share how they told their children, listen close, I hear that Santa is going to be riding a motorcycle this year! The temperatures were soaring all the way up to 36 degrees by the time we finished. 

CHC (Christian Heritage Church) is unique in many ways, not saying all others are wrong by any means, but what sets this church apart is her rolling up sleeves and doing the work MO (Method of Operations). While many churches in this great land were promoting their services, Christmas eve, Christmas Morning. They had spent a lot of money and time drawing people to their house to worship this Child born to us, the Savior of the world. There were other churches taking offerings and using promotional methods to purchase gifts for children, some of the most popular are those who have parents incarcerated.

Jesus states in Matthew 25 that when we for the overlooked and neglected or 'least of these', we were touching Him. This day, we were going to touch at least 170 people who represent Jesus! These little guys were 'Jesus' needing some love!

As we rode down gravel, dirt and some very nicely paved roads, visited houses from poor run down homes to a very nice apartment in a very nice neighborhood (a single mom), the idea of 'Unto You is Born a Child'.... Please indulge my thoughts:

Christ Engaged us on this day

"Unto" - He "came" to us! This is huge, He did not stay in a safe, warm, comfortable, exalted place and draw us. He came to a rough carpenter, a young virgin girl. He 'came' in humble style, a manger was His bed. 

He made us feel worthy, who otherwise felt unworthy. He made us feel important, meeting our self-esteem need.  

As we rode, my prayer, Lord allow our simple touch of these children and parents feel they are worth our time, our mis-comfort and love. We are not asking them come to us, stand in line with other 'poor folks' and then we will give them something. They are worth our going to them. 

Christ Elevated us

"A Savior is born" - now we have a hope and a future. This is not about a life of ease and abundance but a life of eternal hope. He states over and over that He had come to establish a Kingdom, it is one not built by hands, it is one that is eternal. A Kingdom where there will be no more tears, sickness, pain, etc. They like us missed it, they struggled trying to figure how a child was going to destroy Rome and re-establish Israel. 

My prayer today was Lord, you gave the people a 'taste' of your Kingdom while you were here on earth and then entrusted the Holy Spirit to reveal who You are and what Your Kingdom is about. 

Lord, please let the 'taste' of your love that we are giving, draw these people to a place where the Holy Spirit can reveal the true You and Your Divine Kingdom to them.  Lord let this act of unselfish love of so many people be seed in some people's lives and water in other people's lives and may the Holy Spirit bring the increase! 

The above picture is the team we were blessed to be with, Bishop of Great Plains Conference Scott Hampton and family, our son-in-law Jim Reilly and daughter Sasha Reilly and family and Carolyn and I. Not pictured was Mike Woolsey.

 

 

Honoring a True USA Hero

On November 1, 2014, at 7 am, Bo Pearson, Danny Stewart, Stephen Walker, Carolyn Burd and I (pictured below around a broken trike along with Johnny Joey Jones) left in sub-freezing temperatures headed to San Antonio, TX - ON A MISSION! Well over 500 miles later we checked into a nice warm motel, anxious for the next day.

John Barker of Eagles Up organization had requested we attend the Boot Campaign Ride and interview Johnny Joey Jones, a double amputee for the possibility of building him a trike in 2015. A mission the five us were incredibly honored to do and one we took very serious.

An appointment was made for early Sunday morning to meet this hero of our nation at the Boot Ride. There are no words to express our instant admiration for such a quality young man. He stood erect on his two prosthesis and poured out his passion to assist the wounded warriors in our country. He stated without any hesitation, 'I would really appreciate a trike built for me, however, there is an immediate need, a brother who also walks on two prosthesis, due to an IED in Afghanistan, needs his trike rebuilt. My first mission is to help others and this is very important. It blew a hole in the piston the other day while I was riding it'.

Seeing we were there to interview and not commit for Eagles Up, Mission:M25 committed to picking up the trike and rebuilding the engine for him. Boot Campaign committed to cover the cost of the parts to rebuild the motor.

The only missing step was getting the trike from Austin, TX to Amarillo, TX. When the local leaders and mechanic of LeFleurs Transportation, Mike Carlisle, Craig Lawlis and Jeff Kestner (seen below standing behind Johnny Joey Jones) heard of our dilemma, they immediately responded. They met with Johnny Joey Jones and the pickup was made.

This is where a gifted and talented mechanic comes on the scene. Bo and Debbie Pearson, High Expectations Motor Works, in Amarillo TX took the task of rebuilding the engine. The engine had to be disassembled (pictured below), flushed out, diagnosed why the piston come apart and reassembled. Bo's 40 plus years of working on Harley Davidson's engines performed a masterful job of rebuilding the engine. (second picture below is Bo, Debbie and myself after the work was completed) The engine made music at the twist of a key!

Now the special moment when the owner, Dustin Johns' arrival to take his newly rebuilt trike home. On the morning of December 18, 2014, Dustin arrived with a trailer in tow to pick it up. The statement was made, 'we fell in love with this quality young man immediately'. Pictured below is Jeff Kestner; Pastor and Texas Pointman for M25 Kevin McBride and Bo Pearson, Mechanic and National Biker Missionary for the IPHC, with Dustin setting on his newly rebuilt ride.

Mission:M25 looks for ways to honor our true heroes for the church. We want to let the veteran know the church really is thankful for our Freedom of Religion, and of course, other Freedoms as well. We know the price of Freedom is not cheap, take a look, these two young men had their life altered forever due to this war on terrorism. The church is very thankful but falls short many times of telling those who will newer come to our services. This is where Mission:M25 comes in.

Thanks to all, Eagles Up, Boot Campaign, LeFleur's Transportation, High Expectations Motor Works for allowing Mission:M25 to be involved in honoring Dustin Johns by rebuilding his trike to bring him a little enjoyment!

Gary Burd, National Mission:M25 Director

Love THE Key

RADICAL, RISKY, VIOLENT LOVE

1 Cor. 8: 1.....Yes, we know that “we all have knowledge” about this issue. But while knowledge makes us feel important, it is love that strengthens the church. 2 Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn’t really know very much. 3 But the person who loves God is the one whom God recognizes.

I would assume we all go through the same process in this journey of Christian living. We become Christians, see men and women of faith quote the sacred text, are challenged as children to memorize the scriptures and sit in amazement as teachers and preachers open the understanding of the Bible to us. We determine and are very intentional about following this path. We do all we can with our abilities (not all of us are equipped the same) to grasp this same level of 'spirituality'. We want to be a light to a dark world and it seems 'knowledge' is the answer. 

Still, no real light from our life! So we summarize it is a lack of spirituality due to sin in our life and the fact we are 'unholy'. So we set out to achieve HOLINESS.  Can you remember all the different ideas of what Holiness meant to different people? 

• Some people in my past thought it was not drinking coca-cola from a bottle, because we are to 'shun the very appearance of evil'. You drink alcohol out of bottles. 
• Some thought it was the clean vocabulary, not even saying 'shoot' because it was so close to s.....
• Some thought it was cutting my hair, taking off my 'hip hugger' jeans, once I was even asked to leave a banquet at church because I wore white shoes without socks :)

Isn't it humorous what man, the carnal church does to bring us to being a light. In the past 15 years the scripture that has driven Mission:M25 is Matthew 5:14-16, where Jesus states to be a light we do good deeds so that the Lord may be glorified. So here we go, doing good deeds! We work hard at Being A Light Not A Mouth (BALNAM). 

Here again we stumble onto another human effort to bring a hope filled God to a hopeless society. 

The text quoted above gives us all the answer we need, LOVE. If we learn all the text in the entire Bible and quote it from end to end, get all of this evil world from our life (impossible) and give our bodies to be burned and have not LOVE, it means nothing. 

One of my mentors would say to me, 'Love is a verb' it is to be lived. So true but so many people act on 'love' but it is a mask of resentment, anger, bitterness and an expression of past rejection. Love is given simply as a product of something inside. Pastor Kevin McBride spoke last Sunday that we were to have a 'river of living water flowing from us to those around us'. Have you noticed it is free flowing? Have you noticed people that seem to just ooze the love when you are around them? Have you noticed people feel comfortable being who they are, no false pretenses, no coverups for their behavior, when they feel true love coming from within side you? 

Let us not get 'puffed up' because we know, become holier than thou because we have conquered some sins in our life or become exalted because we are servants. 

May the Lord of the Harvest cause us to be a vessel for 'living water' to flow from as we walk through life, wherever we are, doing whatever we do! 

May our life flow in such portions that people 

• receive that river of living, loving water. 
• Then, the love will flush out the evil inside their life 
• and create room to 'know more' and a natural process of serving others by doing good deeds will be done with pure motives! 

Entitlement and Christmas

Santa's Workshop @ CORK

Christian Heritage Church

December 10, 2014

 Christmas is about 'giving' but that nature does not come naturally. Pastor Kevin McBride stated while receiving the offering on Sunday morning, December 7, that giving was in God's nature. The carnal nature is selfishness. No need to teach a child to be stingy, to horde, to hit, scream or cry (or all of the afore mentioned) when another child takes it's toy, it all comes naturally. Recently watching the movie, 'Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee', a young educated Native American states there is no word for 'own the land' in any of their languages. Interesting what greedy and self-centered Christians that came to this land 'taught' them.  The early church sold their lands and gave their goods and they had all things in common. The new Kingdom of God was trying to address the issue that had became so important, possessions are not the gauge for success in the Kingdom.

We talk about 'entitlement' in this country a great deal and yet we continue to promote and use it in this culture. Mother Teresa states that during Thanksgiving and Christmas many of the benevolent ministries or businesses thrive due to people easing their guilt by 'giving to the poor'. They live in their fancy homes, drive their luxury cars, dress in their latest name brand suit and then come 'down' to 'give back' and it makes them feel they are not all that bad. Is this all bad, absolutely not, it is a time to share the wealth to a degree. The problem is it is only driving our problem deeper if not balanced.

CORK, the children's ministry at Christian Heritage Church several years ago under the inspired idea of Dustie Vibbard, Children's Minister for years at CHC, brought to the table an idea that has addressed the issue. The church gathers items of toys, clothing, etc and sets up tables. The children are brought in by buses or they walk to the church. Awaiting them is the usual hot meal but this Wednesday they will not have a kid's service, they will 'GO SHOPPING'! The idea is for them to learn the art of giving. While they do not have the money to purchase the gift, we at least give them the opportunity to think about giving and then to 'shop' for their siblings and parents.

There are tables awaiting them manned with men and women, teenagers ready with wrapping paper, tape and assistance to prepare the gift to take home and hopefully put under a tree waiting the big day of opening gifts. They leave with a huge plastic bag of gifts to be given. 

Oh, we make sure they have their gifts also! On Christmas Eve morning there will be close to 50 people get together and divide toys out and go in four teams to deliver the toys. One of the best times in the year to ride our motorcycles to lead a group. Parents have told their children, 'listen for a motorcycle (Harley Davidson's make a lot of noise), I believe Santa Claus is riding one this year'. 

May God help the church to be instrumental in 'teaching' our young to give in many ways! May we break the bondage of entitlement and look for it in every crevice of our own hearts. 

Thanks Dustie Vibbard for the consistent teaching on giving you have provide for many years at our house! 

Temple Fascination

Have you ever driven around town and taken in the beauty of the churches of our day? Some of the most massive and impressive buildings across the skyline are temples dedicated to our Lord, the Messiah. They are built in the name of the Kingdom as a place to worship our Lord. 

They pale in comparison to the Temple in Jerusalem during the times of our Lord. It was over 500 years old, newly restored, was magnificent and could be considered one of the wonders of the world. 

Herod had taken eighty-four years to remodel it. Not because he 'loved our God' or believed in the Kingdom of God but to appease the Jews and keep the under his control (I challenge you to think on that). 

Let's read the story of Jesus and His disciples' experience on a day after visiting the temple in Mark 13

1 As Jesus was leaving the Temple that day, one of his disciples said, “Teacher, look at these magnificent buildings! Look at the impressive stones in the walls.” 2 Jesus replied, “Yes, look at these great buildings. But they will be completely demolished. Not one stone will be left on top of another!”

Reading this story recently my heart began to feel a little of Jesus' heart. Can you imagine being the Messiah in this story? They are walking 'with' God and are fascinated by a building. 

The temple had them in awe and yet the One the building was built for was walking with them. The Messiah, the King, the Lord of Lords was speaking to them. Yet a building had them in a breathless state. 

The enormity of the rocks in the walls had captivated their attention when the Chief Cornerstone was standing beside them. They had heard Jesus speak of Himself being the 'Chief Cornerstone' in Mark 12:10, and yet they still did not grasp the truth. 

The strength and longevity of the massive stones crumble under the comparison of the Alpha and Omega. Jesus is reading their thoughts (oh He still reads our thoughts) and pain hits His heart. They think these massive stones will stand forever and I know for a fact in less than ten years this will all come down. 

A deep burden in my spirit, a deep pain in my walk with the King, the Messiah, we have evolved into the same place of those attending the temple during his walk for the most part in this country. We are overtaken with our buildings, some not so magnificent because they are so 'outdated'. So we spend money to keep up with our culture, to appease our people, to draw the 'unchurched'. When in fact, our buildings only draw those that are 'shopping' for ANOTHER church because the one they were attending did not 'meet their needs'. 

Buildings are necessary to make a place for believers to join to worship the King and to disciple His people. The building just must not be the focus, the main thing. The King must still receive the attention. 

The Kingdom of God is within us, desires us to be in awe of His love and His work in our life. The Messiah, during this season of the year more than any other time, should grab our attention. 

Finally, we must not spend so much money on the 'building' that we have no resources to fulfill the mandate of serving those outside the fold. Oh how many countless times have I sat with a pastor or leader who would love to feed the homeless, help those coming out of prison, give assistance to struggling addicts, provide a home for the rejected because she made a mistake and has a gift from the Lord in her womb, help a little child with clothes that is living in poverty, due to the deep debt they carry on the 'building' built for the Lord. Jesus stated when you do it to those ignored or overlooked, the least of these, you do it to Me. 

How much is the church spending on the building 'for' the Lord verses spending resources on the Lord in the ditches?