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Monday, December 10, 2007

Coming Up To Breathe

I have never really thought myself especially worthy to hear God speak. Moses I am not. However, there have been a few times when God has spoken to me in the most clear voice. It is actually hard to put it into words. To try to describe it, I would say it is sort of like being in a dimly lit room. A person can see shapes and even discern, with a small degree of guesswork, who people are. When God speaks it is like that room instantly becomes lit, with every detail brilliantly shown.

Do not mistake what I am saying to mean I am not led by the Spirit. That happens to me far more often, as it should be. Those of you who know can attest to this. Being led by the Spirit gives the believer a degree of certainty, regardless of whatever circumstance plagues us at the time. It is really a Supernatural certainty, no matter what the course of action is. Being a minister of music, I have felt that many times when choosing the path of worship in church. Other times, I have felt that when witnessing to a person, or going out of my way to do something. That certainty is special. It is that incredible indwelling relationship that a redeemed person has . . . the Spirit of Christ in us.

While being led by the Spirit gives us certainty, hearing God speak is enlightenment. And upon retrospection, I have found that He more often than not speaks to me in times of question and crisis. When God speaks, you lose that sense of "what if" and "why".

God spoke to me last Friday. I was driving home, in a stand-still traffic jam on 75 South. On these long drives home (2+ hours), I usually find in my thoughts an undercurrent of what really is affecting me and my life. To be honest, underneath my "professional smile", regardless of my positive attitude or do-it-myself philosophy, I am really just a struggling seeker who is just as screwed up as anyone else out there. I used to think that Christians have it all together. Truth is, we don't. The only thing different between a believer and a non-believer is who we serve and what we believe. Thus, the terms believer and non-believer. Nothing else changes. Stupid choices always bring painful consequences. I am almost thirty-four and often wonder if I'll ever get that one figured out.

God spoke to me, right in the middle of my turmoil. He said, audibly from my own mouth, using my own thoughts, " . . . I have to stop focusing on who I want to be, and start focusing on who You are".

I had lost my way, and God was kind enough to let me know why. Integrity, Purpose, Character, Wisdom, Knowledge . . . all of that comes secondary, and is so much more difficult without the peace that God gives. Focusing on who God is like being drawn to a magnet. Once we turn our focus towards Him, He draws us in.

However, we must never place God as our top priority. That doesn't work at all. Priorities can be changed, as you can see from the above example of my own crisis. God must be our LIFE. Like the air we breathe. We can only go without air for so long. Once we lose our way, or breath, we flounder. We lose our vision. Everything becomes blurry. All quickly seems lost, and we even fight what tries to save us, as a drowning person so often does. There have been humans who have went up to seven minutes without air. Most of us can barely squeeze out one minute before we start to panic.

In the middle of this fight, God spoke to me. It's simple really. Too many distractions of life. We don't make time to focus on Him and His will, and we start to lose our breath. We stop breathing the breath that our Creator breathed into us. Quite literally, he is our breath . . . our life. We lose our focus on Him. We flail. We struggle when He tries to intervene.

God spoke to me, and I thank Him for it. My Integrity and Character will continue to be shaped as God walks with me. I have started to breathe again, and nothing feels so good to someone.

© Copyright Derek Hickman 2007

Monday, December 3, 2007

The Importance of Hell

Several years ago, I was given a white cassette tape by my pastor Greg Makcen. It was called "Hell's Best Kept Secret" by a guy named Ray Comfort. I remember sitting with him in his little grey van and listening to it for the first time. I have since then listened to it at least a dozen more times.

Some of you may know the name Ray Comfort. He is currently in ministry with Kirk Cameron. Their ministry is called The Way of the Master, and you can see their program on TBN, and locate the website at www.wayofthemaster.com

Through this tape, we are questioned as to the Importance of Hell in each of our lives. To be more specific: Is there a place in our belief system that places any importance on Hell whatsoever? Do we even think about Hell? Do we think about our Enemy? Do we think about Heaven vs. Hell? Do we think about the possibility of going to either place, and what it would be like? Do we believe there is a Hell? or Heaven?

In his message, Ray Comfort asks the question, "Why do we become born-again?" What is the motivation behind our choice to accept the Gift of Salvation? Years later, with his video cameras rolling, I have heard Ray ask this question to people on the street (this is a huge part of his ministry). He asks this question to both believers and non-believers. I was surprised at some of the answers. Several of the Christians gave this answer, in one form or another: "God will make your life so much better, and totally free you from the pain of sin. Life is awesome when you choose Jesus!"

Wow. Let's examine the essence of this answer:

1. "God will make your life so much better" This is NOT true. No, God is not mean or spitefully looking to make your life worse when you become a believer. It's just that logically this couldn't be true at all. When you make the choice to follow Christ, you are enlisting in the greatest war of all wars - The war for our souls. God's priority is not this life, but His Kingdom to come. Therefore, He wisely makes no promise to make your life better, but instead promises pain, heartache, persecution, battles, and strife. Just like a good General tells his troops before shipping out to war, "Men, I promise you nothing but blood, sweat, and the likelihood of death. We have an Enemy. Let's give 'em Hell!" There's no promise of anything but pain. If good happens, thank God for His providence, then dig another foxhole.

2." . . . and totally free you from the pain of sin" Hogwash. I am still suffering from past sins. Sin makes you pay, and pay, and pay. The chinks in my "armor" are caused by my past sins. What salvation does is free you from the power of sin! No longer do we have that diseased, Satan-created part of us that is enslaved to sins call. Our hearts are healed and we can stand, as warriors, and say "NO" to temptation and tear down those strongholds with God's help.

3. "Life is awesome when you choose Jesus!" The only thing "awesome" is the Hope we have as followers of Christ. Our eyes have been opened to the Kingdom to come. Paul calls it "that blessed Hope". Hope is what makes war possible. No one goes to war hoping to lose. We fight to win. Every ounce of strength and integrity is given to this battle. We must WIN. We must stay faithful! A soldier has hope above all else. The power of Hope. That is what is awesome.

So, getting back to Ray's question. What is the motivation behind a choice to follow Christ? We have already determined that it surely isn't to make our life better! Actually, the answer lies at the end of a process.

1. We must see ourselves for what we are. We are sinners. The way to find that out is to look at the Law of God. The Ten Commandments are a good measurement. Have we sinned against God when we review these? You bet. Paul says the law is a mirror to show us our place in God's eyes. We are guilty of treason.

2. We must know that there is a Heaven and a Hell. Heaven is what God has created for those who trust and obey Him, fighting the war to win, for the cause of Hope. Hell is created for those who reject God's authority, believing there are other ways to obtain salvation or prominence. We must realize that by our sin, we deserve death and Hell.

3. We must believe that God loves us so much, He sent His son Jesus to die for us. This is the ultimate, one-time-only sacrifice necessary to free us from sins power. All we have to do is believe and follow Him.

Through this process, we start to understand that the answer, our foundational motivation for following Christ, is that we understand the Importance of Hell. Our hope is based on the fact that our salvation from Hell is Christ and His sacrifice.

No, we do not become believers so that our lives here will be better. Instead, picture yourself as a drowning man. You are all too familiar with what drowning entails. You feel the pain. You are dying. You can't breathe. Then you see a hand . . . reaching for you. With a sudden realization, you know that this hand is your only hope. You cling to it, ignoring the waves, the sounds, even your pain. You cling to your only Hope. This is what Salvation is. Your only Hope.

Ray Comfort gives a now famous illustration:

Two men are on an airplane. They both order coffee and are about to settle down when a stewardess comes to the first man and asks him to put on a parachute. She tells him that this parachute will make his flight a much more pleasurable experience, and give him freedom to enjoy himself to the fullest. He gladly puts it on, based on her promising words, and settles back to take in this new sensation.

The stewardess then goes down the aisle to the second man and hands him his parachute telling him to put it on quickly, that at any moment the plane could go down, and this parachute will save his life. He thankfully puts the parachute on and settles down to await his moment of escape.

The first man starts to feel rather uncomfortable. He can't sit back fully because the parachute is on his back, making him awkwardly hunched over for the trip. Soon he begins to notice other passengers pointing at him and laughing at his situation. Finally, after what seems like forever, he painfully stands up and throws his parachute off, cursing himself for believing the stewardess in the first place. He emphatically states that he will never again put on a parachute. It is all a hoax, he believes.

The second man feels uncomfortable, but doesn't mind. He isn't even bothered by the jeers and laughter of the other passengers. In fact, he tries to get the stewardess' attention so he can get parachutes for them also. He is focused on the danger and the possibility of tragedy. He turns to tell the others what could happen. He painfully stands up to show them how to put the parachute on properly, explaining what could happen at any moment. He believes that parachutes will save them all from death.

This is Salvation. A reaction to the threat. This is The Importance of Hell to a Christian. We see the danger. We see Hell for what it is. Death. Eternal Death. Salvation is offered (our parachute). We must tell others.

Unfortunately, those who answered with the "awesome" Jesus experience are partakers of a Prosperity Gospel that is sweeping our nation. Pastors across our country are touting God-given principles of living as their message of Salvation. Do this and you will be favored by God. Live this way and you will have a "windfall" of grace. God given principles work in the natural order of things whether we are saved or unsaved. If we manage our money wisely, we will prosper. If we make wise decisions, we will have optimum results. These are natural, God-given principles given to mankind to live by. These are not the make-up of true repentance and Salvation!

We have gotten away from The Importance of Hell. This must be our motivation for the parachute we put on. Unless we realize our sin, and its hellish consequence, we cannot properly know the true reason for our salvation. That is why these "prosperity" converts throw God off when hard times come. They say that they will never take Him back. They curse those pastors for convincing them that life would be better. They become disillusioned and Hopeless. They have not seen The Importance of Hell. Therefore, they never truly see the Hope of Salvation.



© Copyright Derek Hickman 2007

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Does Jesus Care?

“Does Jesus care when my heart is pained too deeply for mirth and song?” The words to this song ask a very relevant question in the lives of many people today. Does God really care when we are facing times of hardship and suffering? We cry out to Him to deliver us from the painful tunnel we are crawling through. We have no idea how to get out of this situation, and the heavens are like brass. God is silent. Does He know? Does He even care?

Yes, He does. However, we may be surprised at what He really cares about. Here is a poem:

God does not care about our circumstance, whatever it may be.
He cares for His creation, especially you and me.
Circumstance is just a tool He uses to make new
the way we understand His love. He works to change our view!
So when you feel you’re all alone without a hope or prayer,
when you’ve reached your darkest place
God’s already there.
Patiently He waits for us to praise Him in this night.
With great care He walks with us until we see the light.
-Anonymous

The weapon of Circumstance is used by both sides in this war for humanity. The same circumstance elicits an incredibly different response by one party versus the other party. This is simply because of the differences in each party’s belief system. This alone should awaken us to the extreme importance of having the right beliefs and values. They literally affect everything we do, from the top to the bottom.

Our Enemy uses circumstance to destroy us because he hates God. His ultimate goal, in using circumstance as a weapon, is to force our attention away from TRUST and RELATIONSHIP to the OBSTACLE in front of us. The interesting part of this is that he doesn’t care whether this is a hardship or blessing. He simply wants to use it to destroy us, thus taking away part of God’s creation. He would love to “bless” us with wealth and prestige, if it meant our damnation. Many times we think only our hardship is his tool. Not so. Our times of abundance and content are often even more effective. Hardship will many times force us to God. Our Enemy would much rather lull us to sleep, taking our focus away from God.

Lucifer, once the Worship Leader of Heaven, lives enraged at our importance in God’s eyes. Even though he loves chaos and mayhem, he will still use the most effective method in damning our souls, because he hates God even more than chaos. When examined, the Church today is being lulled asleep . . . quietly . . . with great abundance and content. Many times, the chaos we see in our church is actually God trying to wake us up, to change us from that Comfortable congregation to a Changed church!

God uses our circumstance in an entirely different way. His ultimate goal, in using circumstance as a shaping tool, is to force our attention away from the OBSTACLE, whatever it may be, to TRUST and RELATIONSHIP! Interestingly enough, it doesn’t really matter to Him whether this circumstance is hardship or blessing. He simply wants to use it to draw us closer to Him, and to teach us to give Him glory at all times. This is the measurement of a “tiny Christ”, a Christian, giving glory to God at all times. Yes, many times God does use hardship to shape us. Pain is often the most effective way to learn something. However, we are mistaken to think this is all He uses. God blesses us enormously, but He does this only to enhance his Kingdom and increase our ministry opportunities. Our hardship, our abundance; both have a two-fold purpose: To build our FAITH, and to enhance the Kingdom. That’s it. Consider this passage from Luke 8:23-25a:

"But as they were sailing along He (Jesus) fell asleep; and a fierce gale of wind descended on the lake, and they began to be swamped and to be in danger. They came to Jesus and woke Him up, saying, "Master, Master, we are perishing!" And He got up and rebuked the wind and the surging waves, and they stopped, and it became calm. And He said to them, "Whew! That was close! Did you see that last wave? We could have capsized out here! What is my Father thinking! It's a good thing I took matters in my own hands! We could have drowned! I have to get alone for a bit to talk with Him and see if this was an oversight on His part!"

Interested that I took such liberty with Jesus' response? If He had cared about the circumstance, He would have reacted like that in His humanity, scared out of his wits, focusing on the storm. However, being filled with the Spirit, He actually asked the freaked out disciples one question, with four powerful words that let us know exactly what He cared about. He said, "Where is your faith?" Another passage, in Mark, phrases the question as, "Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?"

The storm was just a tool, a test of their faith. Where is our faith? What are we concerned with? Is it the storm around us, or are we secure in the knowledge that this storm is under the control of an Almighty God?

Does Jesus care? Yes, He does! God cares about you and me. He cares that we become molded to His image. This is for our own ultimate good. What we need to learn is that God does everything for the ultimate good. Nothing is done for immediate gratification, especially when that gratification will eventually harm us. He uses our circumstance to shape us into warriors for the Kingdom. He cares that we learn how to fight against Spiritual wickedness. He knows that WE HAVE AN ENEMY WHO WANTS TO DESTROY US. He uses those attacks to make us stronger. However, circumstance is just that . . . circumstantial. All around us, we see the circumstantial evidence of a war for our very souls.

If our eyes could be opened, we would surely be surprised. Not so much by the hosts of Heaven, for we might expect them after reading and hearing Bible stories. That would certainly be awe-inspiring, for sure. No, we would be surprised at what we see when we look behind us on the path that we have been walking. Littered on this path, and around us where we stand, are misshapen lumps, some small, some large. At first, we wouldn’t recognize them for what they are, due to their condition. Then we would start to realize the features of past problems; a sickness here, a financial hardship over there, a failure at that juncture of our journey. These are our circumstances, ultimately used by our Father for our good. They are misshapen because God has taken what has been meant for evil and has formed them to mold us in the image of Christ.

Does Jesus care about us? Absolutely, in the truest sense of the word. Absolute. Unchanging. Ever-constant. Immovable. Total. Complete. Unconditional. Unlimited. Supreme. Fixed. Unmodified. Unadulterated. Pure. Perfect. Unquestionable. Utter. Conclusive. Resolved. Firm. Definite. Final. These are not words on a page. Christ DIED for all. This proves the point.

His love is our Solution, our Answer, our Resolution, our Truth, and is given freely to all who believe.


Does Jesus care about our circumstances? I think not. He can use anything to form us in His image. Even dirt (Genesis 2:7).

© Copyright Derek Hickman 2007

Monday, October 22, 2007

The Process Of A Changed Church

Every church has what I call the “usual suspects” when it comes to personality conflicts. There are actually stereotypes of personality that each church has to a degree, different windows we all look out of, our belief system of how a church should work. These are conflicts that every church must deal with, and the most successful churches are churches that have stated some ground rules for their members to follow in regards to these very conflicts. We will discuss these later.

Church conflicts do not usually occur until there is some measured degree of success either already happening or on the horizon. If you look at a church where there is no growth, no outreach, and no real life, then for the most part you find a contented, warm, familial, wonderfully maladjusted and dangerous church. This is the type of church that is content and happy to minister to each other’s needs, and actually is quite uncomfortable at the thought of “strangers” coming into their sanctuary to disturb their comfort. In fact, sometimes they view their group and building(s) as an actual sanctuary from the outside world. This is why we will call them Comfortable Churches. Interestingly enough, these Comfortable Churches can be big or little. It is the mindset of a congregation and their leadership that details what type of church we attend, not necessarily the size.

Comfortable Churches are relatively conflict-free until that dreaded individual we all have heard about, and hoped was just a myth, comes to work for us – the Naïve Pastor who actually believes in the Great Commission! Shudder the thought.

Success, either imagined or real, has a wonderful way of screwing up a Comfortable Church, and it is always amazing to see how it happens. Usually that Naïve Pastor, poor sod that he is, will follow God’s leading and call for us to reform our thinking, to change our views of what community means, and to start a local outreach program. Some uninformed person actually believes what he preaches and, without the consent of the rest of our congregation, actually goes into the highways and byways and invites people to come. People actually do come (sinners are always searching for Truth), and the vicious cycle starts. This is where conflict begins. The idiot member(s) that actually started this mess is/are automatically shoved to the outside, along with any of the “strange” people that have started coming. The dirty, the sinful, the unclean; these are all a huge “cause” of the “effect”, which is conflict. How do we handle these loud, unchurched kids we have been busing in? What about the dirty looking family that stops by and asks for money? Help? Why in the world would we help them? And then the blame game starts. Accusations fly and unkind comments are made. The Comfortable Church has been awakened and it’s not a pretty sight!

Of course, our Enemy loves Comfortable Churches . . . but he loves the Conflicted Church even more. This is where he can do the most damage if he plays his cards right. Sure, in a Comfortable Church, he has lulled us to sleep, but with a little gambling (and he is, above all, a gambler at heart) he can actually destroy a Conflicted Church. He can smash its hope, create disillusioned non-believers, destroy marriages, ruin friendships, and hopefully kill the ministry of our leadership. By this gamble, our Enemy hopes to shoot the moon, and take everyone down.

Once a Comfortable Church becomes a Conflicted Church, it is hard to go back. The damage is done and once we are awake, we need to deal with the issues at hand. Now, this is not to say that we won’t try to go back to the way things were. In fact, a Comfortable Church’s first reaction is to frantically smooth over any blips or bumps in its “security blanket”. I have worked in several churches, and the surest way to do this is by using the ultimate weapon every Comfortable Church seems to have – Short Term Missions! Let’s sweep that sense of community under the rug by going 2-4 weeks per year to a foreign country and help the locals! We then come back and cry, telling the whole church how our lives are forever changed, and that we will go every year from now on to help the poor people in (insert-any-country-far-away-from-here).

This is the greatest weapon of a Comfortable Church, not because a short-term mission trip is a bad concept, but because we do not fulfill the purpose of what a short-term mission trip is designed for. What we must realize is that the short-term mission trip was originally designed to promote two things in the hearts of the people who go:
1. To create a foundation for a call, with God’s leading, to a mission field.
2. To create a passion for the lost in our own community.

As a Comfortable Church, we have actually used the Short-term mission trip to quiet the call to local evangelism. We use it to appease any guilt for not being active in our own community. Our Enemy loves this weapon, and does everything he can to help us use it. It is very effective in destroying the original purpose of Short-term missions.

Of course, now that we are a Conflicted Church, it is harder to use this weapon that has worked for us in the past. Now, instead of being content with the testimonials and tears of mission workers, there are those in our congregation who are calling for us to do the same in our community. Incredibly, this is where the conflict gets most intense. This battle is not specific to any denomination. It is fought in any church. Some of those same people who are so “changed” by their experience in (insert-any-country-far-away-from-here) are the same ones who cast an eye of disdain at the poor and needy who have started coming into our Sanctuary, eating our food, using our facilities, and messing up our Sunday school rooms. The Conflicted Church now grinds to a halt as those involved start to take sides.

Taking sides. Ah, there’s a concept. Whenever a side is taken, and there are two or more sides, there is war. So, the question arises, “What side do we take and what are the results?” There are some that choose to leave the church instead of taking sides. They do this to protect themselves and their family from pain and heartache. They go to another Comfortable Church, where life is good. Whatever church you are in at this time, remember that the side you take determines your outcome, and we must want what God wants for our church.

Knowing what we now know about the Comfortable and Conflicted Churches, let us now look at what can happen. There are two ultimate paths from this point. We see the conflict, and can estimate what will happen if something is not done to intervene. To win this battle, we must be aware that this is not at all a war of flesh and blood, no matter how ugly things get. Those who are destroyed will lose sight of this fact, and fight in the flesh. That is our undoing. This leads to the path of destruction, our first path we will discuss.

To walk this path, we must lose sight of what God wants for this Conflicted Church. We must promote the unbending, unwavering viewpoint that we are right and they are wrong. We must believe that this is their entire fault, and that we are fighting a certain group of people. We must NOT see the spiritual war that is actually taking place for the rights to our church. We must NOT pray or seek discernment on how to proceed. We must accuse others of wrongdoing. We must play dirty so that WE can WIN. We must NOT pray for the other side.

That path’s destination is pretty easy to see: Total failure. What then of the other path? This path is a path that God wants us to take. This path leads to repentance. This path leads to the Church of the Changed Mind.

The word repent, in the dictionary, means “to change one’s mind”, and this is really what God wants for us as a Changed Church. The really great part of the process of going from a Comfortable Church to a Conflicted Church, and hopefully to a Changed Church is that God is part of this. Many times we get disheartened as we fight, losing sight of His role in this battle. Sometimes we need to be reminded to fight the battle God leads us to, and let Him win the war. We must remember that a well-trained soldier does what he is trained to do best – he or she uses the weapons given us. These weapons are what we will discuss now. By using our weapons, and knowing that God is in control, we can be heartened and fight harder.

When examining a Changed Church, I have found several universal weapons that have been used, parts of a strong foundation that keeps a Changed Church going forward. These weapons are what can transform a Conflicted Church to a Changed Church. Here they are:

1. A Changed Church has a unity of purpose. Everything this Church does is done with the underlying intent to bring our community to Christ. Every program is developed and utilized with the intent to support the mission of the Church. Every member is well aware of the mission and the overwhelming majority supports what that mission is. Therefore, the key step is to develop a simple, effective mission purpose, and then to overhaul each dept. or program in the Church to align them with this statement.

2. A Changed Church is only transformed by massive amounts of prayer! This is what stalls and sometimes defeats the efforts of the saints. No prayer = no change. I would suggest setting up two areas of prayer. 1. Ask for people each week to pray and fast for our Church needs and services. 2. Develop a prayer team who will pray during the weekly service on Sunday morning. Some key points to pray for are lost souls to come and be changed, the anointing on our leadership and congregation, and for changed hearts and minds.

3. A Changed Church hears the Word being preached in love. Truth sets us free, and is a vital starting point to the renewing of our minds. We cannot be a Changed Church without an anointed Pastor who administers the Word to us each week. A Pastor needs prayer and physical support from the other leadership in the church.

4. A Changed Church is a church whose people are changed. Each successfully Changed Church requires a foundation of a personal relationship with Christ and each other. Knowing God and loving each other is key to the Conflicted Church being transformed to a Changed Church. Some suggested methods are to have small groups within the church, and to promote relationships between the groups. All of this is implemented as part of the recognized Mission of the church. Part of this process can also be a public renewal of our commitment to Christ, or a weekly time of testimonials geared to inform each other of what God is doing in our lives.

5. Quarterly Evaluation. We must be intelligent enough to evaluate our progress in a physical sense. Every Quarter, meet with your department and program heads and evaluate what has been done, deciding if it is in unity with the Church’s mission, and what needs to be tweaked to make it more successful. Once again, this is done on the recognizance of our Mission.

6. Be prepared to constantly change. The Changed Church is a church that understands that the only constant is change. We must be prepared to constantly move forward, to never become a Comfortable Church again. “No apathy allowed” is our motto! Progressiveness in our Bible study, Outreach, and Prayer is an absolute necessity. Progressiveness in our Relationship with God is a must.

7. Finally, we must remember we fight Spiritual Battles. Satan’s greatest weapon today is usually Circumstance. He uses it in all of our lives very effectively. It is always interesting to see his reaction to a Changing Church. First he attacks the leadership, doing his best to throw us off track with our own circumstances and daily grinds of life. If he can do that, he doesn’t need to worry about the rest of the congregation. Shepherd-less sheep are easy to pick off. Secondly, he tries to turn the congregation against each other, doing his best to get us back to being a Conflicted Church. It is always funny to see how two or three people’s spite can make you feel like everyone’s against you. Statistically, this is simply not true. Do not give into the temptation to fight back against these small skirmishes and darts. Go back to Principle #1. We fight Spiritual Battles. Like the saying goes, “Get on your knees and fight like a man!” Pray, pray, pray. Talking to the Commander in Chief allows us to see the true tactics of a truly desperate Enemy.

Since we know that we fight a Spiritual battle, we learn to look at this through God’s eyes, and join the side of Change. Keep the faith! No matter what stage of church you are in . . . Comfortable, Conflicted, or Changed . . . remember that God is walking with you, and that His hand is actually behind this whole process. Sure, it’s painful. Change usually is. I point you to Romans 12:1-2.

© Copyright Derek Hickman 2007