Reconciliation and Redemption (a brief over view of the month of August 2011)

Ok, So this is a month and a half late, but I want to make sure it gets up here. August was brutal and amazing. I got to pray with a guy whom the Holy Spirit just revealed Jesus as Lord, king, Savior, God. It was amazing. We have a met once so far and I got to hear more of his story. He has a daughter is living with his girlfriend who the Holy Spirit is obviously working on as well. The guy came from a music background and it was perfect providence that God brought him to me to pray for him. This was at the beginning of the month and then at the end of the month I got to baptize Him. What an amazing gift from God. I get to walk with this man and see his life transform while he wrestles with what it means to be a Dad and what it looks like to honor God with a difficult situation and relationship. He is growing quickly and it has been a blessing to get to know him.
I also saw the first physical manifestation of a demon in another human being I have ever seen. This was a reality I knew and believed, but had often thought it was for third world countries or only happened with crazy people and could be easily diagnosed with psychological imbalances. Those are worldly perceptions and honestly antithetical to biblical truth. During this time I was reminded of Ephesians 6 especially 6:12. What I learned I pray I never forget, I also pray I never get to be a part of something like that again. It was full on exorcist stuff. I was being threatened in English and unknown languages, their was sweat, voices writhing, everything you’d expect from seeing movies was present. This was a sister who knew Jesus as Lord. We prayed over her scripture and the truth of Christs work on the Cross, and the promises of God. By the end of the night she was praising Jesus with us. There were six of us present to witness this whole fiasco, somehow I got deemed as the lead. I will most likely one day write the whole story, but for now the praise is that this woman has not been tormented since, and God revealed His power over Satan to all of us in that room. The fact is we are Christians, our enemy is “the rulers, the authorities, the cosmic powers over this present darkness, the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”, that means we get demons to contend with. Paul said that for humility sake he was sent a messenger of Satan (2 Corinthians 12:7), He pleaded three times for it to be gone, but God told Him that it was so He would boast in Christ alone not himself (2 Corinthians 12:8-9). Verse ten seems to imply some actual demonic torment, accusation, physical weakness, insults, calamities etc..
In some sense this woman had it way better than all of us in that room combined. She knows how desperately she needs to cling to God’s promises revealed in scripture, through the person and work of Jesus crucified and resurrected. The rest of us believe lies from the enemy as well, we are just not fortunate enough to have them be so apparent.
The rest of the month was not nearly as traumatizing, but that event was one of life changing magnitude. Christ showed us that He is sufficient in all circumstances. Towards the end of the month we had White Collar Sideshow, and Levi the Poet stay at our house for a few days. It was an amazing time of fellowship. We got to share our lives, and have great conversations with brothers and sisters whom are living a life of essentially traveling evangelists. For those who don’t know the music of White Collar Sideshow, or the rantings of Levi the Poet you should check it out. Levi feels like a long lost brother of mine, He is about 10 years younger than me, but our adolescent idolization of The Cure, particularly Robert Smith is almost identical. I found that particularly disturbing since their is a decade gap, and the albums we resonate with are not the same ones. Needless to say it was quite a bonding experience. T.D. and Veronica from WCS are some old souls. It was the first time I ever met them and we got along stellar. Their devotion to Jesus is really attractive, and encouraging. Please support these folks by going to see them perform when they are in your city, town, or village. They travel in an RV so you can probably book them even if you are a few hours out of the way.
The last few things that went on in August that are worthy of remembering are a Capitol Hill Community groups Barbecue, and a Rainier Valley back to school jump off. The barbecue was great. There were 77 people there! Two years ago there was one Community group in that neighborhood, now there are 11. We hope that by the end of next year there will be 30, so please pray for that. The Rainier Valley back to school jump off event was off the hook. My friend Willie Will hosted the event. there were over 100 Muslims that came out, to a Mars Hill Run event. That is amazing! We get to meet people from a different religious background who normally would not attend anything christian and serve them. There were so many people that we had to go get more supplies to giveaway. Let me tell you about the amazing work God is doing down there. First of all Rainier Valley is a south Seattle neighborhood that is actually the most racially diverse zip code in the whole U.S.A. About a year ago Pastor Tim Gaydos, and Willie Will began looking into what it would look like to plant a Reformed, Complimentarian, Spirit Filled, Missional church there. It looked like the beginnings of a new Mars Hill Church. They began partnering with Union Gospel Mission, who graciously donated a space to meet in. The thing has been crazy. Hip Hop worship, Krumping, and Willie Will getting to refine His skills as a Pastor. So it looks like we have a new MHC being planted in South Seattle. It is exciting to see the Gospel spread, lives redeemed, and people reconciled to God!
Thanks for reading.
Jeff

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~ by jsuffering on October 13, 2011.