Apostle David Johndrow - Fire And Grace

During the last 4 weeks I ran a survey. I asked the question "What does the church need the most?" Relationship (8%) Prayer (0%) Revelation (33%) Repentance (8%) Love (41%) Trial (0%) Vision (8%) It is interesting what folks think the church needs, don't you agree? It would be intriguing to see, of those that answered, which ones are attending church on a regular basis. There are a lot of armchair theologians that think they know the game, but have no training or experience. Amen? I am going to weigh in and say that church needs a lot of things. With years of thought, I believe that we need a fresh revelation, not a new theology. Jesus doesn't change, but how we do, and perceive church, must change. We need a vision that comes from the depths of God's heart, not some program that we can wrap our favorite verse around. Interestingly no one thought that we needed prayer or some sort of trial such as 9/11 to get people thinking about getting back to church. Of course...

My friend and ex-coworker just posted his status on Facebook - "planning my midlife crises." Another friend, someone that I have known since I was 5, had his birthday today. We shared some interesting times together until late in high school. It makes me wonder how I got this far along? Occasionally I indulge in the "what ifs" thinking about a decision I made at some point in my life. What if I went to college right after high school instead of two years later? What if I hadn't called Dennis and went my first Ala-Teen meeting? What if I had kept my stock in Levi's, and not purchased stock in Citibank? What if I had saved the $5000 I received from a settlement instead of blowing it on mission trips? Life in it's atomic form, is a series of decisions - some good and I suppose some bad. Dr. Phil likes to talk about defining moments-- times when we chose or experienced something that defines who we are. I never specifically thought about what those might be ...

I was pondering things at church-- I sort go get off on my own little rabbit trails based on the scriptures that I hear. It's hard to hear some of the more popular ones over and over-- but I always assume they are brought up again for a reason. This morning was no different. We started off in Matthew chapter 6, the Lord's prayer chapter which goes on to say things like, "do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself," and some other stuff about food and clothing. I have read and taught on this chapter many times over the years. I don't travel in anxiety as much as frustration, so there are other passages that are more meaningful to me personally. So, what was different this morning? I was thinking that these verses have been very useful to me, especially in the early years of beginning to trust God with my life, my finances and just about everything else. I went to some crazy word-of-faith meetings and gave recklessly-- all of which God honored...