A New Creature. . . an Apostolic Pentecostal blog

I very much like the following story. I emailed this a couple of years ago to a number of people: Adapted from 'The Star Thrower' by Loren Eiseley 1907-1977 Once upon a time, there was a wise man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work. One day, as he was walking along the shore, he looked down the beach and saw a human figure moving like a dancer. He smiled to himself at the thought of someone who would dance to the day, and so, he walked faster to catch up. As he got closer, he noticed that the figure was that of a young man, and that what he was doing was not dancing at all. The young man was reaching down to the shore, picking up small objects, and throwing them into the ocean. He came closer still and called out "Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?" The young man paused, looked up, and replied "Throwing starfish into the ocean." "I must ask, then, why are...

Igneous, Sedimentary, Metamorphic. . . When I was a boy, really for most of my youth I had a passion to be either a geologist or a paleontologist (a person who studies fossils). I grew up near an old gravel pit. . . hog nose snakes, toads, frogs and tadpoles galore, cliff swallows, opossums, salamanders. . .baby birds, nests of blind hairless mice and precious small rabbits. . .That was my classroom. The sun. . .the wind. . .all of God's creation was my teacher. I loved studying there. I loved rocks. I was fascinated by them, by the stories they told. They were the ballast of my youth. I spent youthful ages of time hunting for fossils, brachiopods, crinoid stems, compound corals, anemones. . . geodes. . .I had my own little excavation in a nearby peat bog, where I spent many days digging and looking for ancient species of snails, their shells preserved in the boggy soil. I romanticized myself on some important paleontological dig. . .Digging away in the hot sun, alone in a ...

Marion/Harrison Street Neighborhood No question, by a wide margin this was the most difficult evening of prayer walking that I've been on. We faced more opposition and negative responses, more than than any other 10 evenings put together. That is not an exaggeration. . . I really ask for your prayer support to tear down this wall of opposition to the work of the Lord in the Marion/Harrison Street neighborhood. So much went on tonight, I cannot begin to tell everything and every one we prayed with. Melissa Wolfinger, Ryan Barkley, and I walked and prayed tonight. While the opposition was heavy, so were the victory reports. We talked with Cigar Bob for a good while. He was going on about some things that I could not really follow. I'm not sure what he was talking about, but we listened to him for maybe 10 minutes. We asked him if he had anything he would like us to pray with him about, like his shoulder maybe. We've prayed and anointed his shoulder just about...

I ponder in my mind about the struggles of life. . . How do I tell the difference between a roadblock that God places in my path to force me aside from a path that he does not want me on and a mountain that must be climbed on my journey? Do you remember Balaam & his talking ass? The text is in the book of Numbers verses 22:20-34. Balaam was on a wrong path. God did not want Balaam going where he was headed. Got put an obstacle in Balaam's path. The ass Balaam was riding on, saw the danger ahead, but Balaam did not see it. Are the obstacles in my life, in my career, in my ministry, that God is using in an attempt to deflect me from a path He doesn't want me on? Have I figuratively hit my donkey twice and is the angel of the Lord getting ready to smite me, like in the case of Balaam? Think of Jonah. God told him to go to Nineveh. Jonah went in another direction. The Lord brought a great storm, He placed a huge obstacle in Jonah's path. Another example, is the ...

Marion/Harrison Street neighborhood A simply tremendous night tonight. Melissa Wolfinger , Terry Wallin , Chris Nord and I walked and prayed tonight. It was wonderful. The weather was very warm, but with a delightful breeze. So much was happening tonight all over the neighborhood, twice I was taken away from the immediate area where we were walking. . . I think Melissa noticed it first, it is like the neighborhood is opening up, blossoming before our very eyes. There are numbers of people and happenings that I only heard reports of, I'll let someone else tell of the happenings that I did not see. We stopped and talked with Cigar Bob for quite a little bit. He was obviously waiting for us and had much to tell us of his week. We just chitchatted for a little bit. . . I asked him what the happiest day of his life was. He said, "When my family was alive. I loved my family so very much. . ." Bob has made comments like this before and I thought that his family was li...

Earlier this week a friend invited me to join a Christian community on Orkut. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Orkut , you can join or create communities there and discuss pretty much any topic under the sun with people from all over the world. I was active there for a while about a year ago, before tiring of the constant baiting and bickering and downright nastiness that came to dominate almost every discussion on Christianity. It just became tiresome to me. It wasn't like talking to people who had sincere questions and an open heart, but rather it was more of an arena for the continued scourging of Christ and Christians. . . But I thought out of courtesy to my friend in India, that I would look at this Christian community. It looked interesting and I joined it. One of the first threads that I read had been posted by a Muslim man, again another baiting opportunity for him I suppose. In his opening post, he challenged anyone to show him an Old Testament prophecy that...

Middlebury Street Neighborhood We had a really great night tonight. It started out a little quiet. Terry was having dinner with his father and Melissa rushed to Elkhart from the other side of Goshen, so she was a bit late. It was a wonderfully pleasant evening, many people were out working in their yards. I talked and prayed with a few people before Salah's Market. I was met by a young girl, maybe 8 years old and a friend who has been coming to Life Tabernacle for a while. I always give her a pile of last weeks fliers and Bible verse cards to hand out. It makes her feel special that she can help hand out the fliers also. Terry wasn't along (he jealously guards the wagon pulling task), so this young girl took the wagon handle from me and she and a friend began hanging fliers on door knobs and giving them to people on the sidewalk as we walked. Apparently these two young girls were playing dress up without permission. They had on big tall boots from the girl I didn't ...

Marion/Harrison Street Chris Nord, Terry Wallin and I walked and prayed tonight with the people of the Marion/Harrison Street neighborhood. It wasn't maybe a night of flash bang excitement, but very much a night of building. . . We are very much growing relationships in the neighborhood. It is very nice to walk up and down the streets chatting, sharing the Word of God and praying with people. As we started Terry prayed, he has been having a rough time, he prayed to find joy on this prayer walk. . . Terry and I stopped and talked with a couple of ladies for a good maybe 15 or 20 minutes. Terry knew both of them I believe. The one lady did not have a Bible, so we gave her one. We talked about why we go to church, what going to church does for us. The being spiritually fed by a man of God, the fellowship, the worship, the being surrounded by brothers and sisters who are not perfect, but trying. . . The other lady had objections to all the hypocrites in churches. We ended up pray...

We are praying and walking up and down the streets of our city. I am posting these reports of what happens on our evenings of street ministry. I bought a Radio Flyer Wagon to pull along behind us as we walk. That is kind of our trademark for people to recognize us by. It was just Melissa Wolfinger and I last night praying and handing out fliers. I don't know what happened to Terry Wallin. I called him, but could not get in touch with him. It was very unusual for him not not be there. It was an abbreviated night. As I've said before our purpose is to minister to people, not to hand out a specific number of fliers. We did the south side of Middlebury Street and back to the subsidized apartment complex at Prairie and Middlebury. We covered most of that complex. I was praying and speaking with a gentleman in the parking lot when Melissa came, "Brother Dave a lady over here needs prayer." There was a young woman, a couple of small children and a friend (or maybe a...