This flight to Charlotte is relatively quick. I’ve never minded air travel; guess I was just meant to do it. Some people dread the long flights and will not travel to other countries. I, on the other hand, love being on a plane. In fact the longer the plane trip the better. I get very excited about the destinations. Right away I begin to focus and seek God for the destiny of the city and church where I am going. I especially get excited when heading to the Middle East; specifically Israel, the Holy Land. I am aware of an amazing sense of awe within me as we approach the most important piece of real estate the world has ever known.

They call it the “Jerusalem syndrome”. It is a condition that one feels when coming to the most spiritual place on earth, becoming aware of a heightened sense of spiritual things themselves. I have experienced this on many trips whether on tour with a large group or small group of newbies to the Holy Land.

The last time I was in Israel, I had a conversation with a high level Jewish man about the Tabernacle and the Temple. Though there were many things he said that would make this blog very interesting, one thing that he said stood out. He described the Holy of Holies, the place where the Glory of God resided, the height being 30 feet, the width 60 feet and the actual depth was 3 feet. If a horse were tied to one side and another horse tied to the other side and hit the horses with spurs…they could not open the veil. It would take the strength of 300-500 men to open it. Nearly impossible for men to get to……What’s the significance?

Well the Old Testament Tabernacle was a type and shadow of what was to come. God said that He would no longer dwell in a wall or sealed building, but rather, come and dwell in our lives and hearts. We become the house or temple of God. From the least to the greatest, every person would have access. It used to be that a priest would go into God’s presence for the people and come out with something. The people were blocked from the very thing that they were created for by a wall. But..

Immediately, when Christ passed from death unto life, scripture tells us that the veil was “torn” which when translated actually meant shredded in millions of pieces. With one sweep of his hand God ripped down the wall that would keep people from Him but even more so, Him from His people. Love destroys the veil or the separation between God and man.

So Christ died to destroy the very thing that separated Him from His people. Yet in the modern church, we build buildings, walled and sealed, to create an atmosphere and culture where a preacher goes in for the people. Man goes in and gets the word from God and comes out of the special intimate place for the people who just sit there.

Seems to me that we built the very temple back up that he tore up in pieces. The average christian has no relationship with their creator. And because they are not in the vine, the branches wither and die. And so do many others. Jesus spoke in this passage that we are to FIRST be with him. That’s what this is all about. Not religion. Relationship…..that’s where the power in our life comes from. And AFTER we have a relationship. Then we send people out to preach to them about a God they know. Evangelism becomes not a task but an outflow of the believers life. The proclamation of a transformed life by Christ.

I’ll talk in part 2 about the power He gives us next to heal the sick!

God is not the condemner of man. Many people have heard and know John 3:16 "For God so loved the world…" and it is referenced often, but if you continue on to verse 17, it reads that, "God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but that THRU Him they might be saved." The laws of religion are what condemn this world, not Jesus. Jesus WAS not Religious, When addressing the religious people He even referred to it as "their Law." Christ’s death became the end of the law. His death actually fulfilled the law thus bringing it to an end, and what the law couldn’t do for people, He did.

How can we expect people to live "righteous lives" when the only one that can cleanse and purify their hearts, they have never met before. Paul said, "HOW can they believe in Him if they have never heard about Him." Religion does not look to solve and help people with the problems they are facing in their lives, but instead, holds them to a strict ideology of how they should live yet it never provides them with the tools to live accordingly. What ignorance and stupidity. Sometimes its embarrassing to even say Im a Christian. I use the word believer many times because Christians have destroyed so many people in the name of a God they don’t even know. It was Christians on a conquest for world domination of the"christian message" that slaughtered millions of innocents including jews and muslims, raped women and killed children during the famed Crusades. It was so called "Christians" who, with crosses around their necks, dumped piles of jewish bodies in ditches after gassing them or rifling them down. Anybody familiar with Jesus would understand that those were religious idiots, and that true followers of Christ, would have taken the stone for those people, just as Jesus did. In fact He took the whipping, beatings ridicule and even nails in his hands and feet on the cross for the very ones that put Him there.

The story in John 8 continues as Jesus tells these religious about Truth, and about not being mans judge. They couldn’t handle theses things. They even tried to kill him but he walked right thru their midst. The letter kills but the spirit gives life. Theworld’s view of us comes from that religious, judgmental, self righteous, piety that’s just plain rubbish. thats why they mock us. The enemy has used our horrific understanding of our purpose here on the earth against us and created a giant wedge and barrier. Its religion that stands in the way of the sinner.

In my Seattle crusade first year in my ministry. We had crowds of over a thousand people a night that lasted 10 nights. A radical friend of mine and i decided to do something crazy to reach the youth of that city. Seattle has always had a cutting edge music scene and what was really popular at the tie were known as raves. A "rave" is a dance type party where intense beats are played with strobe lights and techno stuff is played by a D.J. Most teenagers come to these raves completely stoned on marijuana high on acid even some ecstasy and meth. The beats cause the kids to go into a frenzy with a lot of sexual overtones. In a building right next door to the crusade we put on an "underground rave". We passed out flyers all throughout the school systems and invited these kids to come to this thing. It was mind blowing for me, as we had almost 500 kids come many were totally lost and never would step into a church in their life. I saw 13 and 14 your olds making out and having intense physical touching. It was crazy. I had a group of seasoned pastors with me who were involved in this city wide effort but when they saw the rave they were enraged and that we could host this type of behavior. I realized then that these pastors had been hanging out with their congregations too long, and they lost touch of what’s happening in this generation. While they stayed in their light, the darkness got stronger. What these pastors didn’t realize was that in the middle of the dance we stopped the music and preached about God’s love and guess what happened, conviction came and almost 200 of these kids gave their heart to Christ.

You would not find Jesus hanging out in churches but in places like these in the midst of people like these. The story ends as they wanted to stone Jesus to death. Little did they know he would have taken their stones gladly, but He was’t there to leave on their time, but rather on His own. I titled this, "Im not religious, My relationship forbids it." because any true relationship someone has with a God that loves people and gave His son for them would hate religion. Don’t throw stones at people. Take the stoning for them. Make them better. See the best in everyone…and someone will see the best in u.

God is not against people. He is for them. In fact, He is all about them. Marvelous really, as some people are very difficult, anyone reading this will testify to that.
Religion is not about people. Religion is about rules, regulations, and a most prideful spirit of having to make a point and prove yourself to be right. Like the husband and wife quarreling about really nothing except proving and being right, that they quickly forget what they were fighting about. The Lord says we know that we have passed from death unto life by our love for others, by our love for humanity. Jesus didn’t die for principles. He died for people.

This truth is made clear by the story that unfolds in Matthew’s gospel. Jesus comes into the temple on the heels of a teaching that astonished the people. They loved the authority by which He spoke on things, but their complete loyalty to rules and regulations over their love for people led them ridiculously off course. Jesus once healed a man from a withered arm, the mans arm actually grew in front of people, and their response was… you can’t do that on the sabbath day! Obviously there was no compassion and love for the man that he just got an arm back, just the rule. Just the principle they “lived by.” This is the spirit of religion.

Jesus came into the temple, and the leaders plotted to “get him.”
They brought a women “caught ” in adultery to Him, with the intention to corner Him into coming against this law. They wanted to “prove something,” so many people just want to be right. They are so full of pride. They care more about their point than the person, why were they right there when she committed adultery? Why are we always looking and expecting someone to fall? Maybe its because of our own sin and shortcomings that we get some sort of thrill when it happens to another. We should be there to pick people up rather than kick them down. When that religious spirit attacked Jesus, James and John were ready to kill for him. Jesus said you know not what manner of spirit you are, for the Son of God did not come to destroy someones life, but to save them. Jesus even healed the very soldier that arrested him.

When they brought the women, Jesus addressed the condemnation. He wasn’t for it. He quickly turned the story around and said to the religious, “he who is without sin cast the first stone.” They had their stones In their hands, ready to whip them. Instead of judging ourselves and working on ourselves, so many see fit to work on others and judge them before it’s time. There is a reason judgement day is at the end. Let God work on people. That’s what he does best. Jesus turned the story around towards their own conscience and living. They quickly dropped their stones andJesus said to the woman, “women I do not accuse you. Go and sin no more lest a worse thing come to you.”

All of us need help. All of us are growing in life. The spirit of religion is always ready to destroy. That’s why it’s not from God. Satan is the destroyer, God is the builder and rebuilder of men’s lives. God tells us how to live our life not for His benefit. But for ours! He is not a rule maker for Himself, no, on the contrary, He is not about himself and some law he wants us to follow and steal our fun from us. His law was established to protect and grow us. It was for us. People are what He does best. In turn, people, are what you and I who follow Him, should do best. That’s what makes Christianity Christ like. A love for people.

Overwhelming pressures come to all, they even came to Him. Nevertheless means “in spite of” or “no matter”…can you stand in the face of your greatest trial and press thru in spite of? The real converted Christian is unshaken by circumstances no matter how bad.

It seems to many that they can see the humanity of Jesus more than ever in this statement, He seems vulnerable and even scared. However, I believe Jesus decided that the plan of God was much greater than His own personal feelings and dealings at the time. Never do we see the commitment to His Father more than in this moment. Sometimes, when we are at a crossroads or at the end of our ropes, it is there we see the true converted heart. Of course, anybody can serve God when things are going well. No matter Christians are hard to find in America. Our prosperity has actually come with a great cost. Like the Laodicean church, who like America had lots of wealth, we have gotten lukewarm. Our need for a daily cry for help is no longer there. Therefore hardships are becoming much more frequent in our country. A nation that once launched the Christian message and messengers are now locking them up. They can’t pull out the word of God fast enough from pledges, documents, and even television shows. Persecutions are here and will increase. Now is the time when the grapes are being crushed, now is the time when the olive is being pressed; there is no wine without the crushing of the grape, no oil without the pressing of the olive.

Declare, “no matter what comes around me, I will put the Fathers plan first.” Declare, “in spite of things not going as I had planned, I will persevere.”

Remember circumstances are subject to change, but HE will never change. NEVERTHELESS press on toward your Cross. Your obedience during your greatest trial is the stage for your greatest success and His Glory!

The prophet Jeremiah, writer of the Book of Lamentations, was known as the weeping prophet. Some say he was called to prophesy  Israel’s destruction.  Israel had been unfaithful with the laws of the covenant and begun to worship false Gods. They had deviated so  far from God that they forced God to withdraw his blessings. Israel had waited so many years for a home for the Shekinah, the dwelling place of the presence of God. The presence was contained in a portable shrine called the ark of the covenant ultimately ending up in a glorious place, a temple built by Solomon. But after God withdrew his hand, Israel was quickly overtaken, Jerusalem overtaken and the Temple destroyed. What once began as such an incredible place, turned horrific due to their disobedience and sin. Scholars say Jeremiah wrote Lamentations from a perspective of someone watching from the outside the quick, shocking, and horrific collapse of a once beautiful society. He begins to turn his attention to the children, the generation who would be most affected by it. What about them. And he challenges the Jewish people to go after God and pray with serious passion  and urgency because of the imminent destruction that was coming in that hour.

We here in America as we start the second half of 2011 are in a similar situation. Our culture is decaying faster than we could have ever imagined. Thru the mass blitz of a media without a conscience and devoid of any Godly convictions, our family structure is falling apart. Our children are taking the brunt of it. Ponder just a few of these latest statistics:

33% of our 13 year old girls are having sexual Intercourse.

In 1960 85% of our teens were virgin. Post sexual revolution…2008 85% of our teens are not virgin.

Average age of first exposure to online pornography is 10

# term searched for among 12 year olds is the word sex.

57% of all pornography viewed is from ages 13-19

One of the leading shows on MTV recently was a dating show featuring 15 year old gays and lesbians dating. The president of MTV said we don’t influence 15 year olds in America….we own them. Planned parenthood targeted the girls scouts of America, not for their tasteful cookies but to advance their radical agenda. Happy healthy and hot a teenage guide to their sexuality pamphlet was distributed to our 12 and 13 year old girls. Every kind of sexual act was talked about and the kids were clearly reminded that ‘it was their body” and what they do with it was their choice.

We are watching Solomon’s Temple being destroyed again. A once beautiful God fearing country who was the beacon of Light and Truth to the world is now at a crossroads. And God is coming to us and calling us to cry. To cry out for our children who will grow up in a much different America. You would think every church in America would be “wailing out to God for mercy” day and night. Sooner or later the entertainment driven, feel good church experience must come to an end. We must mobilize an army, and re awaken people of conscience to restore truth in our land. As He died to make men Holy…Let us live to set men free. HIS TRUTH is marching on…thru you.

“be the change you want to see in the world”

Gandhi