Yesterday I was too sick to go to church and ended up spending the day sleeping and lying around on the couch with my little dog Cooper, (Coopie), at my side. In spite of unprecedented amounts of sleep I’m still tired and feel bad this morning, and if it were not for having to meet with a guest who came all of the way to Honey Lake just to see me, I would probably sleep all day again today.
My friend’s name is John James. He founded the popular Christian group the Newsboys and was their lead singer for 18 years. John lived the dream life for a while, but too much success got the best of him and he spiraled out of control down to rock bottom. When he had nowhere to look but up, He called on his God and of course our merciful Lord rescued him and now he is in full stride for the Lord once again and he has been restored.
To put it mildly he is chock full of energy and when I met with him for a little while last night in my weakened condition he all but overwhelmed me with his enthusiasm for the Lord. He is bubbly excited about his commitment to Jesus and talks 90 miles an hour about his plans for his ministry. I can say for certain that there can be no doubt that he is ready to make an impact on the world particularly for youth.
I feel that God led him to Honey Lake for a purpose. I can’t say that I know exactly what that is at the moment, but I don’t believe in coincidence. John has a huge influence on millennials and we have a huge effort to reach them through The Jesus Alliance and I suspect that might be the answer.
John is Australian and I’ve visited his country a couple of times in pursuit of the giant 1000 lb. plus black marlin that go there to spawn every year. On those visits I was disappointed to see that Australia was all but devoid of churches. I discussed this with him a little last night and he told me that it was a pagan nation, but tremendous progress was being made.
Then he told me something really exciting; Australia just passed legislation that puts a chaplain in place at every school in the nation. Then he said that it was his dream to see similar legislation passed here in the United States.
He quickly said before I tell him that it could never happen here to look at each of our lives. He asked me to keep in mind how unlikely would it be that either of us would even be alive today having lived the crazy lives that we lived, much less be following God and filled with His peace, joy, and love. Then he stated if God can change us and for that matter the attitudes in a pagan nation like Australia, He could certainly change the attitudes of a nation founded as one nation under God such as America.
So this morning at 8 a.m. we are going to discuss how they got chaplains into the public schools in his home country and see what we can do to bring about similar change in America. Before you pooh pooh the idea, remember that when God is involved there is always hope. Keep the faith my friends and pray for this country.
Matt. 19:26
Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
October 20, 2014 – Click here to listen