Lately I've been thinking so much about the direction God is bringing us these days.  Sometimes you can sit there and wonder if anything is ever going to change.  I think of Noah on that ark with his family where they released some birds to see if they would go and let them know if the water had receded enough for them to have hope of leaving their confinement at last.  Well, today I got some e-mail from a family we met in Kyoto that was from the city I staying in India so many years ago.  Actually we met many east Indians this trip and those encounters were not only encouraging but gave a real hope for the future.  I got a few new pictures from them today and was thrilled to remember that no matter what seems to be going on or not going on God is moving on our behalf all the time.  There's every reason to thank God today!

Here we are now some time after returning home from Japan and it hasn't taken long for the old familiar attacks of the enemy to start up again.  It's surprising how a person can come away from a real move of the spirit of God and so quickly be approached by the temptation to fall back to what we were before.  I came back from this trip so changed inside.  There were many things that I felt so different about and certain things here at home seemed to continue that work that the Lord had begun in me.  It's not surprising that in the face of all of this there's the enemy right there to move in and say in so many ways that nothing has changed and say that we're in the same old financial holes we've ever been in.  There's things that are swirling all around that want to bring us down.  Today I was reading in Luke where it talks about the new wine...not whine.  It mentions how there has to be a change in wine skins before you can put new wine or there will be a broken skin and wasted wine.  It doesn't matter how long you've done things a certain way...God brings change and is ever challenging us to come up to a higher level.  If we refuse to change by refusing to admit where we've done wrong or betray loyalties that were brought to us from God in the first place we leave ourselves very vulnerable to destruction.  I have a very good example of this:  Lovely and my family.  They are an institution provided by God to guide me through life and be there for me when it's tough.  Should I opt out of that protection I would find myself crushed.  You can't spit in the face of God and expect blessing but we so often do this by showing real contempt for the things we think we know all about.  There's always the new wine that God brings and there's the new wine skin but to fully appreciate this there are things that you also know all too well that you must show loyalty to.  The Filipinos call this "utang na luub" or debt of honor.  No matter what course God has for me to follow I will be loyal because I owe Him everything.  I find this same loyalty with my family.  It's more than a feeling of love for today it's a duty that I'm honor bound to complete.  I feel this very much with the ministry as well.  How can I betray them after all they've done for me?  A person with no understanding of loyalty or honor can never appreciate the good changes God brings to their life because they don't want change for the better they want the next best thing that just over the next hill.  God brings change but He also is honorable.  There is such a thing as change with loyalty and honor.  Luke says that many say that the old is better but I think this speaks of a illusion rather than a reality.  We always think of the 'good old days' but you know what?  Time heals all wounds they say so when you look back it's easy to forget the pains and problems you faced before...they likely weren't all so different from the struggles of today.  New wine isn't a change of place so much as a change of heart for the better.  I can handle a drink of that new wine!  I pray that God brings change to this wine skin of my life so that I'm ever able to contain it!

Today I continued my reading of Joel Osteen's book "Your Best Life Now" and was so blessed by a few little words there.  It said that God is not looking for ability but availability.  I found this to be rather profound.  Now that we've returned from Japan I feel that God has really been dealing with me about my attitude not just about overseas ministry but ministry right here at home.  It's always bugged me that people say I'm another person when I go abroad.  It's like I'm filled with hope and a message that ever sees that God has a plan and a purpose for us all no matter what condition we find ourselves in today.  I come home and it's like a blanket of discouragement wants to settle down over me.  There's no reason why I should have any less hope and faith for things here at home but my mind likes to come up with lots of reasons why this is so.  The fact is God's word is more powerful than any circumstance and it always will be found true no matter what.  This doesn't change from nation to nation.  Often we get hung up on what we think we can or can't do but Jesus said it all too well when He said that with man these things are impossible but with God all things are possible.  He didn't leave a place for anything to not work out with God!  I'm not a biblical expert nor do I claim to know all about Greek and Hebrew but there are so many things that ring true to me with my simple bible and limited education.  I know that I know if we make an excuse that we're not ready to do God's will it will ever be an excuse to not do what He's called us to do.  If we make ourselves available and say to God that you don't know how or when things will work out but here we are God use us it will always turn out for our good.  There's never going to be a better way to show God you're ready to stop resisting Him than saying you're available.  Life is all about distractions from what He's said to us.  There's all sorts of excuses but who will say to God that you give the little you have completely and will do what He asks regardless or how it looks?  God is no respecter of persons.  He won't say I'll not use that person because of their skin color or that one because of what country they're from.  He won't say I'll use that one because they have more education or a better job.  I believe He's looking for anyone that will offer their lives to Him.  What a great God we serve!  All we have to do is be there.  We can receive Him today and walk with Him.  We can say Yes Lord today because He'll never reject us.  We don't need the defenses that we have with people because He never rejects us.  I'm available Lord, take my life and let it be pleasing to you.

Ah, look another entry after being home at last!  Today the Word brought me to Micah chapter seven verse eight which remains one of my favorite.  Nothing can describe the changes that can happen to a person once they've traveled abroad.  I came home from this trip feeling like another person (again).  We watched a video that my dad got from Jesse Duplantis and that seemed to be the catalyst of so many things that were being worked on inside of us.  Lovely and the kids and I watched that and none of us have felt the same about anything since.  That clear vision of God and the way things are in heaven seemed to really clarify things here on earth for me.  I've been feeling like a person hanging on the edge of a building and God just keeps prying my fingers off as I shout at Him and ask Him why He's doing such a thing.  Now as my fingers are pried loose I feel a bit like Peter must have felt in that raging storm when he walked to Jesus on the water and suddenly those waves looked so huge.  He cried out to Jesus and He asked him where his faith was.  Now is a time of radical change for me.  I feel that God is pulling me up to no longer constantly use natural watermarks to determine wether or not God will keep His word.  This is the time of holding fast to what God has spoken and direct the people to that no matter what things speak against the vision.  I feel a little more weight as more responsibility comes onto my shoulders but this burden is light because it's the Lord's.  Micah says "Rejoice not against me my enemies for though I fall I will rise again.  Though I sit in darkness the Lord will be my light."  There's no dependence on natural things to be a deliverance here and this is the Old Testament!  Here we are in a new and better covenant and God is holding nothing back from us.  We can choose not to partake but in His scheme of things we can't ever be held back but we can certainly give up.  I choose life here, I really do.  I can't afford to surrender to my darker feelings and discouragement.  I believe that faith will bring these things to pass.  God has spoken to us and He will bring it to pass but will we stand believing?  When He returns will He find us in faith?  I say YES!  Things come against us but they can't hold us down.  This is the time.  There's nothing else to hold onto here so just let go of those things that have been a crutch.  Crutches are useless to a person who can walk.  We don't need a blind man's cane because we can see.  I just feel that the Lord is really saying he that has ears to hear let him hear, he who has eyes to see go ahead and see the good things that our God has prepared for us!

I think that we came home at just the right time!  We've had some time to recuperate from our jet lag and to get ready for the fourth of July.  It was a great time to think of all the great things God has done for us not only in Japan but in this country.  Sometimes it's easy to get all negative and kind of melancholy when you get home and you're glad yet you already start to miss some things about where you've been.  Japan has been a home away from home and a refuge of peace for us and it's easy to miss that.  Yesterday we spent the whole day as a family.  My dad suggested that we go and enjoy the activities that the local church set up and so we went over to see what was going on.  They had food and drinks for just twenty-five cents and a full barbecue meal for a dollar fifty.  All the activities for the kids was free and it was so much fun to watch them.  I was starting to wonder if I could ever feel real peace or happiness at home but that was put to rest yesterday.  We had a really wonderful day where it was just us without the hassles of ministry or problems of other people weighing us down.  This was the first fourth since the passing of my grandpa so we could all actually do something.  There was no trouble between me and dad, the kids were happy, mom was happy, my wife could enjoy her second fourth as an American citizen and all felt right with the world.  Am I a thankful man?  You bet!  Sometimes a whole lifetime can be spent on trouble times and difficulties but if you don't stop and smell that rose that God puts in your path...you've lost the meaning of what this life is all about.