The Promised Land A.K.A. The Kingdom of God

In the Promised Land, aka the Kingdom as God has allowed me to glimpse it, we can't write off relationship. Relationships will bring confrontation, but that's meant to help us merge in those intersections rather than repel one another with our hurts and disappointments. We are to see these as challenges that Jesus calls us to rise above not only to forgive but to take back the ground the enemy has taken from us!

BloodnFire-ites had and still have a strong revelation to go to the poor. It comes from the strength of their relationship with Christ and one another.

Taking relationship to the streets and avenues of poverty, despair, depression and disease costs everything. By cost I mean just like the twelve, it requires us to lay down our lives for the poor, despondent ones to whom God has called us. When one is lost in the depths of despair they often cannot see the forest for the the trees right in front of them, let alone the way out! And as we were willing to venture further to find those in the depths of the woods we encountered its thickness, too! Having given up salaries, homes and the security of the American Dream we unknowingly entered into a realm of wilderness prepared to give out faith, hope and love. We were not expecting encounters with doubt and unbelief that came from within. But this is where God began to truly define compassion as Nouwen experienced and wrote about it.

Venturing out there, God allured us into the wilderness to speak tenderly to us. The costs hurt and hardened us as we had not understood the light that overcomes the darkness. We threw ourselves into the works rather than the faith and relationship we were so rich in and ministry became like the Valley of Achor. We were desperate to locate the door of hope but our feet seemed stuck in thick, gooey tar. Instead of wrapping ourselves in the stinking thinking we should have had our eyes on Jesus and His promises! In Hosea 2 God tells us He's going to allure us and lead us into the desert but the good news is He is speaking tenderly to us! He promises to give back our vineyards from there. Where? From those desert places where we are to sing as in the days of our youth. This is our restoration! It's going to be like the day when the Israelites came up out of Egypt! What word comes to your mind?

D-E-L-I-V-E-R-A-N-C-E! No longer slaves but His Sons! As sons we enter into a covenant with our King! He removes all the bitterness from our lips. He abolishes bow an sword and battle so that we may lie down in safety. And the greatest yet! He promises to betroth us, His Bride! Forever!!! Betrothing us in righteousness and justice; in love and compassion in faithfulness where God will truly be acknowledged! How do we get a world to act justly? Walk Rightly? By realizing we are the Beloved! His Betrothed!!!!! Allowing Him to show His love to us, the ones called not my loved one. He will say.."you are my people and we will say, 'You are my God!'

God asked Hosea to go show his love to his wife again- to take her back, forgive and love her as God loved Israel, though they turned to other gods. Do we do this? Do we know how? Honestly, I don't think most of us have it within ourselves to do this. Our hearts are too offendable still! We respond and react out of our emotions rather than from our place of peace and authority God has given us. We've forgotten we are His Bride! We've lost our way, our identity, our vision and our purpose trading it for position and power in a material world.

Righteousness, Justice, Love, Compassion and Faithfulness. These are the bride price Jesus has paid for His Bride!

In the promised land, aka, the Kingdom of God, we may walk through the valley of the shadow of death. But Jesus is by our side and that valley is only a shadow! He is the Lord, Our God! the Holy One of Israel! He says, "You are precious in my sight! Fear not, for I am with you. I have called you by your name and you are mine!

We need to know where we come from and where we are going! Eternity really IS our home! His name is written on our foreheads and ours is written in the palm of his hand. This is powerful to know, leading us to walk in our destinies, where God has called. He is ours and we are His! Our soul He keeps! Rightly do we love Him! Even though we walk in the valley of the shadow of death and destruction, it's only a shadow! He IS our strength. He IS our song! He WILL be our Light! All, the whole night long! These are not mere words to a song, but the power, the rhema winds from heaven that Joann McFatter sings about. The Rhema Winds are blowing!

John 1:1-5:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.'

vs. 12: "Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God- children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision of a husband's will but born of God."

Amazing Grace, Faith Like Potatoes

Two movies, two stories of very powerful encounters with God! His Amazing Grace still abounds for us today! Would you be willing to plant potatoes in what looks like the last place they would grow?

After helping co-found Blood N Fire Ministries in Atlanta, GA; God sent Nelson & Susan Hill to Cape Town, South Africa- a place He told them was: "the last greatest place on the earth." Theirs are stories of God's Amazing Grace as they've been obedient to plant on foreign ground.

Henri Nouwen taught: "When we discover our belovedness by God, we see the belovedness of other people and call it forth. It's the incredible mystery of God's love, the more you know how deeply you are loved, the more you will see how deeply your brothers and sisters in the human family are loved."

"Nouwen's words best sum up what we believe God has called us to do in Cape Town and the nations of Africa- to love others. This requires more than a once off teaching or weekly church visit. It has required us to lay down our lives, become dependent upon God alone for all. It isn't really about what we do but what God can do through us when we surrender all to trust, faith, hope and love," says Ned & Susan Hill.

Laura & Natasha

"We met Laura ten years ago in Atlanta. No, she wasn't homeless, alcoholic or from the streets. She was a redneck woman from Dawsonville! She'd heard through friends that we had a heart for Africa and she wanted to meet us because she also knew one day God would move her to Africa. Who knew! Who knew this brash talking but somewhat shy and prim young woman would leave a lucrative job and inheritance behind to move to Cape Town South Africa with us!"

Susan often would agonize about how she could convince her husband to let her bring home some of the women from the street to help them rebuild their lives. Here came Laura bursting onto the scene as the surprise prodigal daughter they didn't know they had! "She charmed her way right into all our hearts."

Everyone was assigned a night they had to cook dinner for the family. Our first year Laura cooked the same dish every Wednesday night! Susan suggested a cooking class when Laura confessed she really didn't know how to cook anything else. And a Star Was Born! She loved it so much she asked her parents' permission to attend culinary school. After graduating with distinction, the sky is now the limit for Laura!

But before any of that happened another woman asked Laura to visit a women's shelter. Laura laughs, she has a wonderful gift of helping people know they are special! It was that gift she took with her to St. Anne's Shelter for Women where Natasha, a refugee from Zimbabwe collided with a redneck American with Faith! Natasha had just given birth to her son, Tacu, and then received divorce papers from her husband in Zim. She had no idea where to turn, or what to do. Her condition was ripe for a miracle!

Natasha dared to believe this faith Laura was declaring weekly was also for her. She and Laura began to meet weekly to pray and fellowship in addition to the time Laura gave to the shelter. Natasha's faith began to grow, they inspired one another onward. Tacu gained an auntie who adored him! And pretty soon they were invited to meet the rest of their spiritual Blood N Fire family in Cape Town as well as some uncles from Rwanda! Augustin & Felicien, Rwandans studying at UCT also joined the monthly fellowship and spiritually adopted Tacu in order that he would have some men in his life.

At the monthly gatherings requests for prayer were shared. Natasha told of her dream to own a restaurant versus working for someone else. As a refugee there were not an abundance of profitable jobs available. In addition to what work she did find she would also sell sandwiches on the street and developed a pretty good clientele. Before long the landlord of her flat wouldn't allow her to cook for profit in her little one room flat. Taking faith by the horns Natasha launched out into her destiny; securing a building to rent and the supplies she would need to get started. It was when she dared to share it in the group that folks seized the opportunity to realize the truth of Acts 2: "there was no need among them." An offering was taken and prayer followed, Natasha was on her way with the down payment for the rental of the building. Others donated their expertise in plumbing and electrical contracting and still others donated paintings on the wall as well as kitchen equipment. Natasha and Tacu found their Kingdom family forming around them responding to their request for prayer and the Fountain View Cafe was birthed! The dreams of a formerly hopeless refugee blossomed Natasha into a faithful, extravagant giver and restaurant owner extraordinaire!

At a recent monthly gathering Natasha expressed her desire to be baptized. Having been baptized by her parent's choice as a baby, Natasha wanted to celebrate her decision to love God with all her heart, mind and soul.

"Coming up out of the water, I felt new; reborn- as if all my burdens, trials and troubles had been washed away. I don't look back now, but press onward knowing that Jesus has made the way for me and Tacu, too!"

In The Beginning of Desire, Reflections on Genesis; Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg gives insight: "(Jacob)collided with a certain place." The Hebrew word suggests a dynamic encounter with an object traveling toward oneself. The certain place was where Jacob's father had been bound in sacrifice.

This is the future place of the Holy Temple, of prayer and sacrifice; of human attempt to come close to God. It's the place of purity and danger, longing yet distancing. Jacob makes contact with God in this place, there is a shock of spiritual recognition. Jacob initiated the evening prayer, one of the three daily prayers responding to the three phases of the day. At evening a person should say, "May it be Thy will, O Lord my God, that You bring me out of darkness into light."