A New Creature. . . an Apostolic Pentecostal blog

I have had several inquire as to whether I had taken them off of my little email list. I have taken no one (who has not requested it) off my list. I have been very busy. . . too busy over the past several months. I have not done very much writing for several months. I am back. I am not going to get that busy again. I suffer for my busy-ness in many ways. . . John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice and I know them, and they follow me. . . Jesus' sheep hear His voice and merely from their hearing He knows them. . .What is the meaning of this mystery? How does He know them from their hearing? He knows them in that they react. . . they look up. . . they respond to the sound of his words. Imagine a pasture of sheep all feeding and minding their own business. The shepherd calls to them. The ones who know Him stop what they are doing, lift their heads and turn to Him. The rest of the sheep ignore Him. . . continue on with their own concerns. . . ignoring the unfamiliar voice. . . thereby the sh...

My son, Colin, called Friday morning, weeping on the phone. His grandpa, my ex-wife's father, had died that morning and Colin had just found out about it a few minutes previous to calling me. This too was a blow to me as well. Richard was someone you figured, or maybe deeply wished to be invincible. In ones life, you meet a handful of people whose character is. . . I don't know to describe it. . . somehow above the rest of us. Richard was one of those very special people. I do not know of anyone who had an unkind word to say about Richard. I am sure that he was not perfect. I'm sure he was not without fault, but in any respect he was a wonderful man. Adrianne, my daughter; Colin and Rachael, his girl friend; and Kristine, my ex-wife and I met at the hospital. Richard was still in his bed. I'd never been present for this kind of thing before. I didn't know what to expect. He was in a double room, in the bed by the window. There was a fellow quietly watching TV in th...

The Wrestling Match. . . The other day I was speaking to someone about our prayer walk and the looked for results from our walking up and down the streets of our city. I quoted the following verse: Ephesians 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. I love preaching and teaching on this section of Ephesians at the jail. There is so much wisdom and practical advice for living a victorious life in these verses. Anyway I was explaining that by walking up and down the streets we are stepping out in our belief and exercising our faith. We are confronting the principalities and powers and rulers of darkness, on their doorstep, in their own dominion. The same prayers could surely be said from our Lazy-boy chairs at home or from upon our knees at the side of our beds, but by putting actual physical steps alongside of our prayers, we are putting flesh...

Today we begin another year, a new chapter in the book of our lives. What will this new chapter hold? We see those around us, in our immediate church family whose lives are very much different on January 1st 2008 than they were on January 1st of 2007. Lives forever changed by events, circumstances of health, finances, seemingly random events of car wrecks or unforeseen birth, renewal and blessings. For a truth is that life is about change. Even if nothing much remarkable happened in your life this past year, you are different. You and I are not the same people we were 365 days ago. For good or bad, we have changed. If nothing more, we have aged and with that should come greater wisdom. Unfortunately in my life I can see long decades seemingly without much movement in that direction. Years ago, I would have said that nothing about life was constant, but change. Today I know that life is filled with change, but there is one constant and that is God. My faith is subject to chan...