Jesus with Soapy hands

 I ate lunch with man I mentor in the rehab program, we sat down by an old woman who sat alone at the back of the cafeteria, and I recognized her as the woman known there as the "Foot Doctor. Her name is Susan and she's my age or older, just a whisp of a woman, with an unassuming appearance, short and slight of build. I greeted her and asked if she was the "Foot Doctor?" She smiled and quickly corrected me saying she's just a nurse that cares for feet.  

Susan works the streets washing and caring for the feet of the homeless where she uses her skills as a nurse. She also comes weekly to the mission to give foot care to the men in the program. She drives an old car and in the trunk she has, carefully organized by size, shoes for men and women as well as socks. 

As we talked the Lord descended on me and I was made aware that Susan was heavenly royalty. I asked her about her work and in one conversation, she told me smiling that last week she cared for a woman's feet and gave her a pair of athletic shoes and socks. The woman thanked her profusely and then turned and immediately blew her nose in the new socks! Street life, one can never predict what will happen next. 

What can I say about Susan? One thing I can boldly say, she is not "JUST A NURSE!" I was in the presence of a godly woman devoted to Christ and caring for those He died for. I was humbled, filled with admiration and simply couldn't keep her Christian love and work a secret. 

Well done! Good and faithful servant. 

 "To the noblest faculties of the soul, 

rest is like a disease and a torture. 

Our understanding is commissioned and delegated to grapple with ignorance, 

The conscience is to confront the powers of moral evil, 

the affections are to labor for the wretched and oppressed; 

and the Holy Spirit puts within us an incessant and satisfying energy." 

Martineau. 

Oh God, help me never quench this 'incessant and satisfying energy!'

 This is such a heart wrenching photo... 

Jesus said, "I cast out demons and perform cures." 

That'S why we preach Jesus, 

He will bring the dead back to life, and this little boy will get his father back. 

There are more and more kids growing up like this little guy, mercy! Help me be equipped and ready with words of healing and grace. 

No doubt some will say,

 "You can't help a man until he's ready."

  True, but we never know by looking when that is, or what season a man is in, that's why we are told to be ready in season and out; today may be the day the season changes.

I've seen many conversions in the jail and mission, and the groundwork for their conversion was no doubt long and hard, and many before me wept for them, ministered to them, and shared the words of truth with them, but to no avail, but then on the day God reaches them, I come along and say a few words and they fall and repent!

I had little to do with it, the groundwork was laid by other faithful souls, but I get to see the fruit of their labors and I can tell you, it's "Joy unspeakable and filled with Glory!!!!!"

 Different Anointing's?

How God shows up differently at the altar.I am lonely”

“I’ve just got accepted into the life recovery program and I’m nervous.”

“Pray for protection.”

“I’ve strayed from the Lord.”

Words at the altar, that space where after worship and preaching I invite men or women to come forward to be prayed with by volunteers that come to help me minister to those moved to action by the chapel services.

Last night there was a particularly different weight and feel to the ministry time. I’m not sure I can define it from a certain scripture but sometimes there’s “different” anointings or at least it seems different. Maybe Isaiah 11:2 hints at something like this:

“And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.” (ESV)

Whatever the case there was a fatherly peace at work.

It reminded me of those moments as a parent when your kid comes to you upset, scarred or anxious and they need your adult presence be it words or holding them and they find calm in you. They kind of melt, or the knots untie…it’s peace actualized.

It seemed like the “way” the prayerful words were uttered carried a power within them that spoke stillness to the chaos of emotions and turbulent thoughts.

Sons hearing their heavenly Father’s voice has a deep effect on them. It’s what called Peter out of the boat and into the waves in the storm.

I witnessed this last night, God calming tempests.

A number of times after the prayer a couple men grasped me in their arms and held me like a drowning man would seize a life preserver.

Men need to hear a word from the Father through the fathers.

Pastor Eric, Jacob's Well, Spokane Wa. 

 If you have't read Leonard Ravenhill I recommend him. 

When your getting lazy no one will put the goad to you like him! 

"No man is greater than his prayer life. 

The pastor who is not praying is playing; 

the people who are not praying are straying. 

The pulpit can be a shopwindow to display one's talents; 

the prayer closet allows no showing off.

Poverty-stricken as the Church is today in many things, 

she is most stricken here, in the place of prayer. 

We have many organizers, but few agonizers; 

many players and payers, few pray-ers; 

many singers, few clingers; 

lots of pastors, few wrestlers; 

many fears, few tears; 

much fashion, little passion; 

many interferers, few intercessors; 

many writers, but few fighters. 

Failing here, we fail everywhere."

-Leonard Ravenhill, Why Revival Tarries

 Below is a prophetic encouragement drawn from the story of Gideon in Judges 6-7.

This is a word to all who feel less than able, forgotten, hidden, unseen or driven into a life that is far less than you dreamed.

This is a word to those who haven’t lost sight of what has been,

but struggle to figure out how it can be.

This is for all who hear the word of the Lord and obey, even if it’s in ways that are less noticeable, seen or celebrated but you still get it done.

A word for those who feel like the ‘weakest or the least”

who seem to be running from life more than chasing it.

Those who are forced into the situations of life that never fit,

you deal with wheat where there should be wine.

O, Valiant one, mighty warrior, mighty Hero, mighty heart of valor...

the Lord is really with YOU.

I know you’ve been called everything else by others, by demons and defeats and your own head and heart,

but you are who He says you are today, even if you don’t yet believe it.

A word of visitation for you...

God is here,

he has sent his ministers of fire, angelic messengers and warriors

sent to war for your heart,

your call and the life you were meant to live.

He sends help to his heroes.

A word to the wonder seekers, those who dream of

a kingdom coming and God’s will being done right here on earth.

You dream the dream of Eden and are called to fight battles bigger than you can ever win on your own or in your lifetime but you must fight on.

A word for the sign seekers,

on the hunt for the evidence of God at work all around you.

You are the seers, the ones who call those things that are not as though they were.

Those who choose to believe that God will make His ways and will known for those who truly seek Him.

A word for the demolishers of idols,

those called to deconstruct the lies all around us,

the false realities, images and narratives.

Destroyers of those dead altars that have produced so much pain in your family's line.

You are the curse breakers,

the end of the line for that which steals, kills and destroys.

A word to those about to be clothed by the Spirit in a fresh anointing

to do what you could not,

to be what you could not be on your own

and “to go”...when staying would be so much easier.

A word to the Fleece bearers,

who at times feel like they are dew-filled but all around them is dry

and at other times you are dry as desert and yet all around you

is drenched with the dew of heaven.

In this season, God will fill your bowl, soak your soul, secure your steps and quiet your doubts.

Pastor Eric. Jacob's Well, Spokane Wa.

 

Nine years ago I met Sarah, she was incarcerated in the jail where we had a weekly service. Some of the Christian women in her dorm talked to her about the Lord and encouraged her to come to our meeting. She never heard about the Lord in any depth until she landed in jail and it was there she began her journey and the Lord fell on her there in such a powerful way. 

We stayed in touch and some years later I asked her to join me and we continued to hold services at the jail together: we now alternate between the men and women each week. This week I had the women, she the men. When the women were coming downstairs to the meeting room, one of the women, let's call her Cheryl, noticed Sarah and called out her name; she and Sarah had been dorm mates together nine years ago in the jail when both were struggling with drugs and homelessness. There was only a minute for them to talk but Sarah told her how the Lord had rescued her and that the Union Gospel Missions women's program was a life saver for her. That was about all there was time for, so they said their cheerful goodbyes. 

Cheryl entered my meeting room first: a tall, lanky, extroverted woman of thirty, and she remembered me from nine years ago! We began chatting as the other women arrived, there were six altogether.

We began reading a list of "the promises of God" I prepared where we would discuss each one before moving on to the next. Before long something in one of the verses triggered Cheryl, I'm not exactly sure what it was but she began pouring out her story between sobs, admittedly it was hard to follow completely, but apparently she dated a man and this man harmed her four year old son. I couldn't make out precisely what she said because by now she was in the depths of anguish and sorrow groaning such desperate cries that all of us in the room were in tears as she tried to talk between these soul agonizing sobs. I've seen and heard countless tears fall, deep soul wrenching tears, but I've never heard anything like those haunting sobs last night. 

Apparently she felt completely responsible for what happened to her son, and she mentioned something that made me think this man may have dropped her son or intentionally hurt him, I just couldn't make it out, and didn't dare ask questions. After a long time she began to compose herself and I tried to direct the conversations and read scriptures that I felt would bring some degree of consolation. The meeting went on for an hour, and at least six more times she would break down into these consuming groans and sobs. 

At one point as she was wringing wet with self-loathing, she mentioned that when she saw Sarah before the meeting, and how God had rescued her, restored her losses and now she was helping other women discover the riches of Christ's love and salvation, and realized that in the last nine years she didn't heed the call and has gone through such horrid suffering and loss that she sobbed out, 

"I'm done with this! I'm going to stop resisting God and I'm going to get in the program Sarah did and stop running; I've tried everything but God, and I'm done! I'll gladly take a year and try what Sarah did! I can't go on like this!"

She said this in such wrenching pain, floods of tears and sobs, it was like I was watching a woman in the throes of agonizing labor birthing, not a child, but a soul! I stood there watching a woman being born again! 

I wish words could capture the emotions and spiritual drama of the evening, but they simply fall short. But when Christ orchestrates the salvation of a soul through countless seemingly incidental happenings, well, we stand in awe of His love for us. 

Our time was up, she felt vision rising, a ray of hope breaking through the hopelessness, and a determination in her like few I've ever seen. We prayed, she prayed, thankfully I had a pamphlet on the Missions women's program and gave it to her and we said our emotional good-byes. 

Every woman there as well as myself, felt like we'd been through an emotional wringer! But a good one. We all knew something profoundly eternal took place that night.  

 

It was ladies night at the jail yesterday; the female population is low and I usually have four to six women that want to "come to church." 

Last night the first woman arrived and we sat and chatted for a while when she began to pour out her past so freely. It's not unusual that women open up and share, but usually it's after I've built a  rapport with them. This woman was in her forties and like so many there she was missing many teeth and her face betrayed her past of struggle. No one else arrived so I knew the Lord must have something special for this woman, when just then another woman entered. She was well over six feet tall, and had the most beautiful skin you've ever seen! It was a deep, dark ebony that immediately reminded me of Song of Songs 1:5 where the Shulammite bride declared, "I am black and beautiful." 

Then a third woman arrived, she was in her early forties, very pretty but wore such sorrow in her face I immediately remembered her from the previous meeting. My heart went out to her in the previous meeting and I was so glad she came again because I prayed before I came that I could leave them with hope, a ray of gladness, and some degree of the joy of the Lord. 

I have a number of topics I'm ready to discuss depending on what opens up. This was the night to simply read through a series of 12 scriptures that reveal how the Lord loves us and is ready to forgive us.

As we read a verse we then discussed how it struck us, and they were all very engaged and it was the kind of candid meeting I long to have where the sense of the Lord's presence fills the room. 

Nearing the end of our time, the woman who came in last began sharing how her partner had been outside the jail earlier, yelling for her as he wept loudly. He is deep in addiction and has attached to her so strongly that he feels like life without her isn't worth living. This isn't a new story, many partners are so dependent on the person they love it becomes a suffocating obsession, and like this man, he would go to her workplace, home, and tonight, even the jail. I had to talk with her about this! So I asked if she could stay and talk, and she said yes she wanted to, so as the others left we had some privacy. 

These are difficult situations because there is so much to cover in such a short time, what should take hours and hours of counseling is left for me to summarize in thirty minutes! And it may be the last time I ever see her. But the Holy Spirit was heavy on the room, the words flowed, her heart was open, and I left feeling I did all I could do, which of course, is never enough. But God....