The Veil Has Been Lifted

Andrew Peterson has a new CD out entitled “The Resurrection Letters vol 2″. It is an album that I would highly recommend. One of the songs on there (track 6 I believe) is called “Don’t give up on me”. The song really speaks to my heart.

I am going to do some real paraphrasing here, but what the song says to me is, I have made a huge mess out of God’s image in which He has made me. I mean…everything I have ever done, it seems, has failed miserably. My absolute best is not even in the same ballpark of God’s righteousness. Sure, I have tried to be a disciple and servant of God, but I, as I am sure most of you can testify, fall so short of what He wants me to be ever to often. All the times I should have loved someone instead of being angry, or had compassion on someone yet kept it bottled up inside, or should have said something but I didn’t. Every time I walked past someone in need, thought only of my self,and ignored the cries of the helpless and hurting. Or how about all the times I stood and proclaimed the “word of god” according to my own understanding, preached worthless religious doctrines that actually hindered the Kingdom of God, loved my self more than my wife and my children, or expected more from “so called Christians” than I did myself. The list goes on and on and on and on…….The song from Andrew is a cry to the Father to not give up on him despite all these flaws.

I was listening to the song one day at my lunch hour and began to make the very same cry. As I did, this hawk began to circle around my head. Now I know this may sound a little crazy to some, but I heard God say to me…”I am right here…I WILL NOT GIVE UP ON YOU”. I just began to weep when I heard it.

You know, I have often wondered what I have ever done to deserve to have the blessings that God has so lovingly supplied, and I believe I now have that answer….ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! I have done nothing to deserve God nor the Love he has given, yet He loves me just the same. Understanding this supplies the fuel for me to yield my life to Him every day with hopes to, one day, be like Him.

I don’t know where you are with God right now. You may have even given up on God, but I believe with all my heart, that He has not given up on you. Let us lay our lives down, pick up our cross, and carry that cross for a most worthy, just, and righteous King.

Thank you Father for looking beyond this worthless bag of flesh, loving me, and never giving up on someone who, above all creatures, is worthy of nothing less.

It never ceases to amaze me why it is that most people never stop and ask the all important question………WHY?

Why is it that so many people so easily accept the traditions, and doctrines, of their chosen denominational structure, and fail to ask why it is so. Why is it so easy to ignore that little voice that imputes question inside of us. For example, your reading the scriptures and you run across a verse that sounds like a complete contradiction to what you heard your pastor preach the week before. I know what I used to do…I would just write it off and move on, or I would convince myself that it meant something entirely different. After all, I found God in this structure. My granddaddy and great…great…great…great granddaddy have always walked in this same way…if it was good enough for them…well then!

I would like to challenge every one who reads this blog entry to stop and look at everything you stand on and everything you believe, and ask yourselves…do I really believe this or is this just something that I have assumed to be Truth because someone I respect has told me it was so?

My heart is not that everyone would question every thing, come to a different resolve, and then rebel. My heart is that we all become lovers of Truth. After all, do we really want to wager all of eternity on something that we where taught in Sunday school. Should we not know in the deepest core of our being what is true.

We have been given a promise from Truth Himself, that “IF” we seek the truth we will find it. Please, if you are not already, do not become complacent. Do not be satisfied with “church as usual”. Always test yourself to see if you are in the faith.

Let me, if I may, give you a few “WHY” questions that you can start with.

One: Why do we worship the way we do? For example, where did the structure of our services come from? why does the pastor stand where he does and the congregation sit the way we do, where did the idea of stained glass, steeples, and Sunday school come from.

Two: Why are there so many denominations?

Three: Why do churches today look so different than the one we read about in the book of acts?

Four: Why can I really go to heaven just because I repeated a prayer after this preacher, or can I?

Five: Why does God really bless, and want to bless, me with material things such as money, cars, houses, and things of that nature? Or does He?

These are just a few to seek the truth about. I am sure that you have, and have had, many more. Seek the answers to those questions, and do not quit until you have the assurance in your heart that you know the truth.

I am a living example of a life completely changed because God put inside of me one simple question…..WHY?

Happy seeking!

Hello friends, I know…I know, you have not heard from me in a while. The truth is, I have been dying. It’s not what you think. God has been killing me, and you know, now that I think of it, I did not see any of you at my funeral:)

I have heard all my life that we must all die, so God may live through us. I am completely convinced that very few people truly know what that means. Oh, I am sure most people have a ideal of what it means to “die to self”, but very few understand just “how deep that rabbit hole goes”.

Friends, there is nothing what so ever, that God likes about you and I. Everything about us is a disgrace to the one who created us. We are sinners; everything about us is dark and useless. God wants absolutely nothing we can offer him. We have no righteousness, no TRUE love, and no life. God wants nothing more than to utterly destroy every inch of our being.

I know it is popular to believe that this magical thing happened the day we “asked Jesus into our hearts”, and some how, because we believed, God miraculously preformed this divine surgery that changed us into His likeness. This is, unfortunately, not true. It is one thing to be a believer, and completely other to be a “Christian”(Like Christ). A disciple of Christ is to be a learner of Christ, to walk after Him. Our goal should be as John the Baptist, we should decrease and Christ must increase. I will take it a step further and say that we should not only decrease, but completely disintegrate. God wants us all dead. I know the language that I am using here, may be a little defensive, but so did “drink my blood and eat my flesh”. When Jesus said that to those who where following Him, they left. The truth is, that is the way we all are. We want everything to be sweet and nice. When someone tells us we should die, that does not fit into our plane of living the life that we want to live. I am sorry to burst your religious bubble, but God does not want you to live the life you want to live. He wants you to die, so He might live. God no longer wants credit for all of your earthly treasures, your house, cars, and savings accounts. He does not want you to “be willing to give all of that up”. He DEMANDS that you lay it all down before Him. He wants every lustful, self centered, hateful, greedy, desire that you have. If you don’t want to give up your life for His, that’s fine. Just stop calling yourself disciple or Christian.

There is good news for those who lay their lives down and die. God promises a resurrection. I know when we all physically die, we will one day be resurrected, but God promises us one on this side as well. His life for ours….It is a great trade off. “For those who will loose their life, shall find it”. Quit allowing the enemy to convince you that the life God come to give you will be found in you earthly kingdom of”stuff”. God’s Life is found when we are striped of everything that we hold onto. That could be many things, such as you car, house, and other material things such as that, but we also hold onto things such as our temper, greed, loved ones, even our religious doctrines, to name a small few. God wants all of you my friend. It is not good enough for you to know you have a cross you must bare, you must also pick that cross up, carry it to your calvary, and there you must die. The scriptures say that, if you do not do that, you CAN NOT BE HIS DISCIPLE.

Dear friends, I am not going to kid you, dying is no fun at all. In fact, it can even make you question rather or not you want to live your life for God. The love affair that we have with ourselves is a powerful bond, but I believe you will find that the LIFE that you gain is well worth your loss.

Good day friends, I would like to thank you for taking time to read my blog. I would like to encourage you to make comments in the comments section at the end of each blog. I appreciate those of you who have commented so far. I hope that I have answered your questions well enough. If not, please let me know.

I had a gentleman ask me a few questions in regards to the changes that I have embraced along this journey that God has led me through, so today I would like to elaborate just a little. If you have not yet read my blog entries entitled What a Journey, I would encourage you to do so. There I share what God has taught me concerning what is known as westernized Christianity, and where I stood concerning my faith.

I would like to start by saying that, on the surface, I have not changed much at all. I still have my faults and weaknesses. The biggest difference is that I have learned that there is not one thing I can do to change those things about myself. The fact is all those faults and failures are who I am. I am a son of Adam. I was born into a life of sin and a sinner is what I am. There is not one part of Frank that is righteous, not one ounce of righteousness. “There is none righteous, no not one”. The only good thing about me is that somewhere deep inside of me there lives a righteous and holy God, and if there is one ounce of hope for me it is there. If you see anything in me that is holy and righteous, it will be Him that you will see not me. The only thing that makes me different from who I was a few years ago, is that I grew weary and tired enough of my counterfeit Christian existence, that God was finally able to reach me. All I did was lifted my hands in complete surrender to Him. The reality is I wanted Truth more than I wanted my religion, doctrines, and ministry. We can never see truth if we already think we know it. When you read or hear words like you read in my blog, you will automatically judge it upon what you know to be the truth. The question one must ask their selves is this, is the truth that I cleave to my truth, or is it God’s Truth? Is what I believe to be the truth been passed down to me by man, or has it been given by God? Where does our anchor really hold? Perhaps what you believe is truth, perhaps not. The fact is we will never know until we lay it all down before Him and approach Him as a little child knowing nothing.

I am reminded of a song that has excerpts of a preacher delivering a message, and he was telling of the day he came to God. He said that he told God that if he went to hell, he would go there believing in the blood of Jesus Christ. I do not know about all of that, but what I do know is that this is the kind of determination we must have in the pursuit of Truth. We must say to God…God, I may leave this world never really living in the fullness of your Truth, but I will leave this world with nothing less than my every effort of its quest. It is this heart that God can speak to and none other- a heart that can be satisfied with nothing less than His fullness, Truth, and righteousness. It is His promise that such should be filled. It is the day that one believes that they have it all figured out that his or her quest has ended. Friends, please hear me when I say that the Truth is not words one can read, or a message that one can hear. The Truth is the person Jesus the Christ. It is He that we must pursue. It is only when we begin to lay our wisdom down and pursue Him that we enter the first fruits of our forever changing lives. Therefore, the only thing that has changed in me is that I am no longer pursuing a what, but I am pursuing Him, and when we put everything in the light of Him, it is clear rather it is of Him. I was able to see the church system for what it is because I put it in the light of who Jesus is, and it failed to look like Him.

One reader of my blog asked me what made Rose Creek Village any different. It is because it looks more like Christ than anything that I have ever seen. That is what makes it the body of Christ because, when put in His light, it looks like Him. The same reader stated that not everyone can move to Rose Creek Village, so what can they do. All I can say is, when God opened my eyes to see the Truth, I felt alone, I no longer fit in to organized religion, and I had no direction. I was a complete mess dear reader. However, God did not leave me in such a place of despair. In the midst of my desperation, He introduced me to Rose Creek. God will not leave you wandering around my dear friends. Zion is calling out to all who have been chosen by God. It is your and my duty to heed the call. If that is to leave everything behind and move to Rose Creek Village, then that is what we must do. However, this one thing I do know, it will cost you everything to follow Him. The sad truth to this is there are very few that are willing to pay that price “Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it”. This is the complete contrast of our so-called Christian nation, where the majority claims to be Christian.

The best advice that I can give would be to learn Christ. Do not spend your time going after knowledge of anything else. Learn who Christ is so you can recognize him in others, and when you see Him in others, join yourself to them. Trust me; this is not an easy task. Some of the people here at Rose Creek sought many years for a true body of Christ before they found it. True Disciples of Christ will always look like Him. They will act like Him, walk like Him, talk like Him, and love like Him. Dear reader, settle for nothing less. Until next time, may God lead you into the path of righteousness

Hello friends, I hope that the “My Journey Till Now” blog entrees have challenged you to look at where you are in regards to your walk with Christ, and I trust that they were a blessing. My heart in sharing my testimony with you is that you could see that God is much more than what we have made him, God has so much more for us than we have embraced, and God has a much greater plan for our lives than we could imagine. There is a life that we were created to live, and that life can only be found “IN HIM”. We can have experiences with Christ anywhere He chooses to show up. I was in a Missionary Baptist Church at age 13 when I first met our glorious savior. I have seen, felt, and experienced Him in Baptist, Pentecostal, Methodist, and non-denominational churches. He has been with me while driving down the road, at concerts, in living rooms, on street corners, in the hospital, and many other places. Just because we have a heavenly experience with God in a certain denominational structure, does not make that structure God’s chosen constitution for His Church. All church organizations claim to be the way to God. Every one of them believes that their way is the right way, and that their doctrine is true doctrine. However, Jesus says that He is THE WAY, THE TRUTH, and THE LIFE. His name is not Baptist, Methodist, or Pentecostal. His name is Jesus (Yahshua).

Jesus in deed has a body in the earth, but it does not carry a banner of some denominational name either. It can, however, be recognized easy enough; It will look just like Christ. Do not look to some organized church system to find out what Christ is like. Read about Him in scriptures. You will find someone who had left His home, came to earth, spent his time with the scum of the earth, healing the sick, and He became a servant to everyone around Him. Jesus had no place to lay his head, He did not own anything of earthly value, and everything he did was for the salvation of us all. To prove that to all of us, He stretched out His hands and he died on a cross. All the things that Jesus taught to us were not just words; they were who he is. He tells us things like love our neighbor, do good to those who do wrong to us, love our enemy, give your shirt to the one who will take from you your coat, lay down your life for those around you, pick up your cross and follow him. Everything that you hear him teach is wrapped up in one word…Love…The love of Christ. Love is the fruit of a true child of God. Love is what we produce when we abide in Him. That is how we know if someone is a true disciple. True disciples are not known by their many words, their great interpretation of scripture, or their great doctrines. They are known by their LOVE. Inside of this four-letter word, you will find all that Jesus taught. I would like to challenge all of you once again to do an extensive study on Christ and his teachings.

What if I told you that I have found a people that fits Jesus’ prerequisite of being true followers of Christ. What if I was to say that there are a people who lay their lives down every day for one another. A people who have left and forsaken all that they once regarded as life to follow Christ. A people who are not out to gain their American dream of houses, cars, and fat bank accounts. What if I told you that there are a people who have truly become living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God. Let me confirm to you that I have. The things that God showed to me that was missing in the church system, I have found living and breathing in about 300 people down in Selmer TN.They are not a flawless people who never make mistakes. They are not people who are exempt from the temptations of the enemy. They are not Super Saints walking around thinking they are better than anyone. They are, however, a people who love and fear God. They are a people who are crazy enough to, actually, believe that they are supposed to live out the life Jesus told us to. There are no halfhearted Christians here. Believe me, you cannot live in the kingdom of God and be halfhearted. They love God, and therefore they love one another.

Let me give you one small example of the love of Christ that can found among these people. About three years ago, the doctors found a cyst on my pancreas. It is not cancer, but it can be life threatening. The problem I had was that this ailment required a great deal of medical attention, and I could not afford to pay for it. I did the best I could, but I had no health insurance and so I could not get the care that I needed. I was living with a great deal of pain back then, and there was nothing I could do about it. The church that I was attending at the time was a good size ministry, with churches all around the world. Everyone was aware of my condition and my lack to take care of it. I was never offered any help to make sure I was taken care of. All that was offered to me was their prayers. Now do not get me wrong, prayer is a good thing. The problem is faith without works is nothing but dead faith. The people here at Rose creek village acted in complete contrast to former. As soon as they knew about my condition, they have not failed to make sure I was completely taken care of. They give me time off work to go to the doctor, they help pay the dr. bills, and they even put me in a job position that would not aggravate the cyst. This is just a small example of the love of Christ here. They are a people who care more about me than what I can do for them. In fact, they do not expect anything in return for the love they give. It sounds a little like Jesus does it not.

The men here at Rose Creek go to work every day to help provide the needs of the widows, single mothers, the poor, and orphans every day. The love they have for each other means more than any disagreement they may have. Out there in the church world, that I came from, when someone would have a disagreement we could just agree to disagree and move on, but not here. Here, preserving the unity of the faith has the upmost importance. We work through all problems that may arise until we find God’s truth in the matter. This is a beautiful thing to see.The best thing I could tell you here is to just “COME AND SEE” for yourself. Words cannot describe the beauty that is found in such unity. We have heard much teaching on the body of Christ, and we thought we had an understanding of what it is, but when you really see it for the first time, it is breathtaking. Do I think that the people here at Rose Creek Village are the only people of God in the world…Absolutely not? They are, however, the first demonstration of the true body of Christ I have seen. I have seen true Christians out there, I know there are many people who love God, and they are intertwined in several different ministries. I have seen missionaries who have laid their lives down for the sake of the gospel. There are people every day pouring their lives into the lives of others, and are demonstrating the true love of Christ, but this is the first time I have ever seen a whole body of people with the same heart, mind, and spirit. I know there are others out there, and I am always looking for them. We have found some in Rhode Island, South Dakota, and possibly some other states that we are aware of. It is exciting to see what God is doing.

I am forever grateful for what God has opened my eyes to see. I may have lost friends, and possibly some family in the process of following the path God has laid; however, He is worth it all. I love every single friend and family member I have, and it kills me to think that they’re hurting in any way, but I must follow God. He is my way, my truth, and my life. Where ells could I possibly go.

Do I think that I will always be at Rose Creek Village…I do not think so? I will, however, always be attached to the body of Christ. All I know at this point is I am where God wants me, and my prayer is that God would let this life spread into every town, city, state, country, and nation.

Oh God, let your Kingdom come.

Hello friends, I want to wrap up my journey-to-now entries today if I can. For the past several weeks I have been sharing my heart and experiences that I have endured over the past several years. (Please go back and read all of the “What a Journey” blog entries before going further.)  I understand that much of what I have said sounds way out there, or a little rocky. I will say again; I do not claim to KNOW anything. All I have done here is shared what God has done in me.  I am sure you can tell by my writing that I am not this big educated bible scholar. I do not have a PHD or some fancy title in the front, or at the end, of my name. I am just a messily old, good for nothing, sinner boy that without God would be a lying, cheating, murdering rapist. Jeremiah says it this way “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” That is what we all are without God…deceitful and desperately wicked. I do not know why God would choose me; however, this will be one of the first things I will ask him when I see him. I have done nothing in my life that can possibly warrant God’s attention; those of you who know me can amen that. All I can say is He has chosen me. He did not leave me in my hypocrisy. That is what I was dear reader… a hypocrite. 

Sure, I loved souls, and I wanted nothing more than to see them come to Christ. I cared about people, and the things I did in the ministry where not for the money I assure you. On the other hand, I would preach that people should live holy and virtuous lives before God, yet I did not understand what I was preaching. I would preach things such as we need to love one another, walk as Christ walked, go to church, win souls, and –God forgive me- church doctrine. I am sure I was telling people some truth; however, it was coming from a lack of understanding. I had knowledge; that is all I had. I had knowledge that I had obtained from my many different teachers over the years, and from bible study, which relied on those same teachings. I had knowledge, but I lacked understanding. Knowledge is not difficult to get. All you need to do is listen and retain what is taught; however, to get understanding you must physically experience something. If I told you not to put your hand in the fire because you would burn it, you would have that knowledge; moreover, if you put your hand in the fire and received a burn, you would then have understanding. I was preaching to people warning them not to put their hands in the fire when I myself, had never been burnt. It is not enough to know how Jesus walked, talked, and responded to diverse situations. If all we have is knowledge of all that Jesus taught, we have fallen short. We must experience Christ.

We must leave our old lives behind, put our own selves aside, walk in a world that we do not belong, become a servant to all of humankind, pick up our cross, and carry that cross to the place that we must die. It is not until then that we come to understand what Paul was saying to the Galatians when he said… “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” It is here when we find not our understanding at all, but that we share in the one who understands all things.

I believe if we where to really look at the life of Christ, and truly LEARN HIM, or should I say UNDERSTAND HIM, we would have a real hard time finding him in our church, and most importantly, in ourselves. The truth is most of us have not so learned Christ.  Eph 4:20-24 says “But ye have not so learned Christ; If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness”.  The Greek word “learned” in this verse is manthano meaning, you guessed it, understand. That is what God showed me. When I would stand in the pulpit to deliver “God’s message”, they did not see Christ, they saw Frank Lee, and believe me he is not much to look at. -God may have used something I said to drive something into someone’s spirit a time or two, but remember what He used to speak to Balaam- (Num 22:28).

No one can come to Christ without first seeing Him. No one can see Him unless he is on us (the new man) and we are in Him. We cannot be in Him if we do not have an understanding of Him, and if all we have is knowledge of him with no understanding, where does that leave this lost world? These are just a few of the things that God was revealing to me during this time.

Look, I know that there are good people in the church system. There are people who may even have the Love of Christ. There are preachers who stand every week and plead to their congregants to live a life pleasing to Christ, and they do the best that they know how. There are men and women who are on their faces before God weeping for the souls of this world. I have worked alongside of some of them; I was one of them. My prayer is that God would give to them a Damascus experience, then send to them their Ananias, and have the scales fall from their eyes.

 All the things that you have read in my blog have been my Damascus experience. Up to that point, I thought that I was on the right path as Paul did. I believed I was doing the right thing and serving in the right capacity. My Ananias, however, would not be found in these experiences. My Ananias was found in a little town in southwest Tennessee called Selmer where I now reside. It is a people, a people of God, and when the scales fell from my eyes I seen the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. It was the body of Christ.

In my next blog entry, I will share a more about this place in which I now LIVE, and I will tell what makes it the most beautiful place I have ever seen. Until then, may we all come to understand Christ.

Hello friends, once again I would like to share with you my heart and all that God has taught me concerning today’s Christianity. As always, if you are new to this blog, please read from the first entry and work your way up to the present so you will know how I got to this point. I am almost finished telling you about my journey (at least the short version) that has brought me to where I am now. God has taught me so much; however, it would take too much time to write it all down. I just wanted to focus on a few highlights to give you an idea of how I have arrived where I am now spiritually.

I left off last week sharing how God opened my eyes to see the “church establishment,” what it has become and its absence of the unity of Christ. The body of Christ was never meant to be divided just to come together a couple times a week. Close your eyes and get a mental picture of a body scattered abroad; completely separated from itself: a hand over there, a leg over there, a torso living over there and so on. If you get the same picture that I do, it looks like something from a Steven King movie. It is not a pretty picture, so imagine what God sees looking down at all of that. You may say that the body of Christ is supposed to be taken spiritually and not literally, which brings up another question I would like to ask; why do we choose one verse of scripture and say that is meant to be taken spiritually and another is supposed to be taken carnally? What would happen if we just took the scriptures for what they say and not try and read into them all of the time. Now I am not saying that when the bible says to cut off your right hand when it offends you that you go get a hacksaw.  A good example would be the billboard that reads…”that love your neighbor thing…I meant that, singed God”. God means exactly what he says; He says not to murder and in the Hebrew translation it means, you guessed it, do not murder, so when God refers to His body needing to be fitly joined together, it means just that. Now, do not get me wrong…I believe that the scriptures are extremely spiritual; by this I mean that when applied in the natural there will be spiritual results. Now, I know that there are deep things that will nourish our souls in the scriptures however, I am just trying to make a point that we need to take God for what he says.

Anyway, let us move along.

I asked God to open my eyes and He has. Dear reader, remember, I was in this system, I believed in the system, and I loved that system, so you can imagine what I was feeling like at this point. I could no longer enjoy ministering; I no longer had any idea of what I should preach about. You want to hear something really crazy? I could not stand even going to church any longer.

One night God reviled a scripture to me that messed me up worse, if that was even possible. It is found in 2^nd Cor

chapter eleven, and it says this,” 2Co 11:3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. 4 For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him”; read that whole chapter. Paul was writing to the Corinthians and warning them of these “super apostles” coming in, blinding them of the simplicity that is in Christ (it goes back to what I was saying about making even the scriptures more complex than they really are), preaching about a different Jesus (remember, Jesus is being preached, but not the same Jesus Paul preached about), receiving a different sprit, and was hearing a different gospel. I am afraid that the same fear that Paul had towards the Corinthians has become true in today’s Christianity.

Jesus is being preached today in fact, you may hear him being preached in your church but what I ask you is:  is it the same Jesus we find in scripture? I would suggest that you do an extensive study on Christ and see what He did, hear what He said, and really learn what He taught. Then ask yourself, is this the Jesus that is being preached to me?  I believe the results will mess you up as they should anyone!

How about the Sprit you have received? How sure are you that the Sprit you have received is truly the Spirit of God? Do you refer to the Spirit as being a goose bump, a feeling of some sort, or some other emotional experience? If so, where in Scripture do you get that ideal? Where I came from, when someone would feel the spirit, they would shout, cry, or some other outward manifestation would take place. In another church, you may see someone laugh, run, pass out, and even bark…what in the world is that about? Let me ask you another question, we can all agree (I think) that Jesus walked in the Spirit, why do we not read where He went around shouting, barking, or anything else that would give us an ideal that these are the things that happen when the Spirit is “moving” on us? Remember, Jesus is who we model our lives after. Could it be possible that we have indeed received another sprit? The Bible says we are to test the spirits and see if they are of God.  Now I know that not all denominations practice the examples I have made here, but the truth is, most of those churches that try to avoid the word spirit as much as they can just do not want to be identified with “holly rollers.” Now, I know that when you feel the presence of God it can be somewhat emotional but we are talking about the indwelling spirit of God ~ God IN US; the spirit that Paul says we should walk in. Folks, if we walked around barking, falling over, shouting, or any of those things, we would not win one soul to Christ; in fact, you would, more than likely, end up in a mental institution.

The Spirit of God is not a feeling at all; He is our link to heaven and to the will of God. For us to walk in the Spirit means to be linked with God all of the time, that He may guide your every step. The truth is today’s Christianity does not need the Spirit of God because we have our own links to God. We have pastors, elders, teachers, and, dare I say, the Scriptures. Who needs the Spirit of God when we have the Scriptures? Dear reader, I thank God for His written words we call the Holly Bible; it is a beautiful thing to read the words He has given us through His beloved servants. However, they are not to take the place of His Spirit. What we have done is exalted our interpretation of the Scriptures above Christ Himself. Our faith and trust is not in THE WORD - that is to say Christ - but in our interpretation of the Scriptures and what we think they are saying. Look around you dear reader there is a church building on almost every corner of this country. Every one of them claims to know the Will of God, and they base it upon their interpretation of the bible. The bible says that every man is right in his own eyes, but the end of those ways is death. How am I any different from anyone ells you ask? I am no different. If I were you, I would not trust me either because I do not even trust myself.  God is who we must trust my friends. Like I said in an earlier entry, if what I say is true or not, is for you and God to decide.  All I am doing is sharing with you the path that God has brought me down, and these are some things He opened my eyes to.   

What God was showing me back then was that I was not serving in his Kingdome at all but rather, as a friend of mine says, serving in a kingdom of words. I have come to understand what the difference is between the relationship I had with God when I was a young man and the absence of His presence latter. It was because I had left Him to pursue knowledge of Him. My failed spirituality did not come from the “honeymoon” being over. It came from me leaving Him to pursue Him. The fact is I had such a great relationship with Him back then because I was a child, and I knew nothing of doctrine, bylaws, church government, and things of that nature. All I knew was the Love of Christ. I know many of you can identify with what I am saying here. Think about it…Jesus says that such is the Kingdome of God. What is? Children, right? We call ourselves the children of God, but I think we are more like the grumpy old men of God that are no longer on their honeymoon with Christ.

God is calling us back to the simplicity that is in Christ Jesus. He is calling us to go back to the basics and learn what we had missed. We must forget about the things “we know” and ask God to teach us the elementary things we have no idea about or have forgotten. Like to Love the way Christ Loves, to live the way Christ lives, and to walk the way He walks. We need to learn what it means to lay down our lives for Him, to die for Him, to come out of the world and be separate. We must learn what God wants when it comes to us being His body, His people, and His children on the earth. To not come together but be together…One Body in Christ. Therefore, the whole earth can know That He is King. We will not do that with meetings, worship music, church buildings, doctrines, t-shirts, and bumper stickers. We will do it by showing the ONE; one body, one mind, and one soul…THE SIMPLICITY OF CHRIST…LOVE.      

I will try rapping up my journey on the next entry. Thank you once again for reading this blog. Until next time, I pray God will lead you into the simplicity that is in Christ

Hello dear friends, I hope this blog has blessed you in some way thus far, or at least caused you to look at where you are in regards to your walk with Christ. Because this blog always puts my last entry on the top of the page, I must once again ask all new readers of this blog to go back and read the last three entries in the order that they were posted, so you know where I am with my testimony. Otherwise, I may make some references that will make no sense to you at all.

I left off with my last blog talking about the revelation that God gave me in regards to the lack of cross bearing love in the church system. I hope you got a chance to check out the video that I have posted on my MySpace. If not, make sure you do. www.Myspace.com/franklee72.

I would like to continue my journey with another revelation God gave me during this time, which is, what I  call, “part time Christianity”.  These two day-a-week spiritual filling stations (churches) that we like to go to so we can have enough “strength” to make it through the rest of the week. I looked and looked in the scriptures for anything that would give me even the slightest hint that God wants us to meet in this manner. I never read anywhere where Jesus said to any of his disciples that he would see them in church on Sunday, nor did I find him ever saying to Peter “don’t forget prayer meeting on Wednesday. In fact, except for a few times when Jesus went to pray or minister, he and his disciples where always together. They were together Sunday –Saturday, 24 hours a day, and seven days a week. Jesus did send them out to minister as well, but these guys where together from beginning to the end. They were family. Remember, Jesus was laying the foundation of what was going to be his church. Read the book of acts. You will see this same example of unity continuing. Jesus never meant for his children to walk alone. He never meant for us to walk alone five days out of the week and have unity two days a week; in fact, it is completely unattainable to have any unity at all when we only see each other two days out of the week.

Anyway, I was not seeing the unity of Christ in the church. What I was seeing was not the body of Christ at all; it was more like the body of a Mister Potato Head (the body was dismembered most of the week, and put back together two days a week). The truth is, most people would not be able to be together any more than that because there is so much diversity; we would drive each other nuts if we were together any longer than that. Why is that? It goes back to my last blog entry; it is the lack of the Love of Christ, and do not forget, we need those other days to pursue our worldly kingdom.

I know these words may come across a little callous, and I probably sound arrogant. The truth is my heart breaks over you my brother and you my sister. I know how hard it is to try living a life for Christ on this two day-a-week church mentality. I know how hard you try living a life that will please our King. You have good days and you have bad days. Most of you are still struggling with the same sins and strongholds that you have dealt with from the beginning. There is not one evangelist out there that has enough, anointing, power to cast these things from you. Your only hope is the same hope Peter had, and that was the accountability he had with his new family. He could not come home after a hard day’s work and slap his wife around…why? He was no longer alone. He had his brothers there to make sure of it. The truth is, we need the whole body of Christ; “the hand can’t say to the foot I don’t need you”.  I think one of the best gifts God has given us, next to himself, is each other. God never meant for his children to live separate individualistic lives away from each other. David new that value of Gods people being together; in Pslm 133:1 he says “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity”! Even from the beginning, God gave his people a land so that his children could be together. Jesus taught this to all who would desire to be a disciple. He never told anyone, if you want to be my disciple then go to college, get a good paying job, raise a family, go to church on Sunday and Wednesdays, and live individualistic lives apart from the rest of my body. No. He said things like drop all that you’re doing, forget yourself, sell all you have and give it to the poor, let the dead bury the dead, forsake mother father and you own life also, and follow me. Jesus even prays for this in the book of John 17^th chapter 22^nd and 23^rd verse. 17: 22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: 17:23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. Do you hear what this is saying dear reader? Gods will is that we are one single unit, and it is by this unity that the world may know of Christ. It is by Gods people living together as one body, one heart, and one mind that will show the world that God is God, and he is alive and well. The early church had no problem understanding this. What was the first thing the new believers did in the book of Acts? They sold all of their possessions, continued daily at the feet of the apostles, went from house to house, eating their meat with gladness and singleness of heart.  Ask God to give us eyes to see the scriptures in his light and not through religious, denominational, and traditional, spectacles. I believe, if you will seek His truth with all of your heart, you will see all of these things very clearly in the scripture.          

Anyway, all that God was opening my eyes to see was breaking my heart to the deepest core. I would literally drive past church buildings and weep as I watched people walk into them. What is worse was, at that point, I felt more alone than I ever did; I was an emotional wreck. I would break down and start crying right out of the blue. It did not help matters any when God gave me yet another vision (or picture in my mindJ. This time it was of the church.

I saw a straight road that went all the way back to the early church that we read about in Acts. I saw this little black dot running back and forth across the road. At first, I could not make it out, but it kept getting closer and closer, running back and forth through generation to generation. It went from church body to church body. It finally got close enough that I was able to see what it was doing. It was the enemy; now you can call him satin, the devil, Lucifer, or whatever, but in this vision, his name was clear; it was Religion. What he was doing was going back and forth through the ages dropping seeds. The closer he got the darker the church got; the churches light got dimmer then dimmer, and by the time it got to our generation, the light was almost completely overshadowed by the darkness. I began to weep uncontrollably, and I cried out “oh God where has the light gone, where is that city that sits on a hill that cannot be hid”. This establishment we call the church, at one time, may have been the church, but it was no longer.

I know how all of this may sound; probably the same way I felt at the time…crazy. Some lunatic, atheistic infidel, but what is true is I asked God to open my eyes, so he was and still is to this day. The fact is, when I leave this world, it will not be pastor so and so, brother so and so, or dad or mom I will need to answer to, it will be God. Let us always remember that my friends, and let your prayer be that God will lift the veil from your eyes. Until next time, may God give us the eyes to see.

Here is part three of my testimony (including the introduction); I hope it has blessed you in some way. I does get a little more uncomfortable from here on … Again, feel free to ask questions and make comments.  God bless. 

Hello once again my friends, I am lying here in bed feeling a little under the weather, so I thought I would take advantage of the time I have here to share a little more with you. It is nothing to worry about; I believe it is just a cold, so I am trying to nip it in the bud before it knocks me out of work. I know my entries have been short, but I am doing what I can with the little time I have, so please bear with me. Once again, if you are new to this blog, you will want to go back and read my previous two entries before reading this one, or you may be a little distorted with what is going on.

I left off from the last entry telling you of how God was really making me look at where I was in relation to where He was, which, to my surprise, was not the same place. He was teaching me that my hope and trust was in a system and not in him. I have come to see that so many of you have fallen into that same deception, therefore, my heart is to, as I said in my introduction of my blog, is to have you, the reader, look at yourself and ask; what is my hope in?

Anyway, I heard a minister speak one night, at the church that that I was attending at the time, about “the church system”, and how it was a man made system and not one from God. I have to admit, I thought he was crazy, just as some of you will think about me. He spoke about church pews, stain glass, the podium, and the steeples. He said that all of these things, among others, where all the residue of the Catholic Church carried over through the reformation; therefore, he named our beloved system the Cathagog system (a blend of the synagogue and the Catholic Church). His words, though they sounded completely ludicrous, got me thinking. Could this be possible, could these words be true, if so…what ells could be wrong with the beloved system that I had labored in for so long? I begged God to give me eyes to see, and once again, He stood true to his word “what so ever you ask for in My Name shall be given to you”.

God put it in my heart to get up at 4 am every morning and spend time with Him. It was during this time that God began to reveal simple truths to me through his scripture and in prayer. Everything I would read in scripture would lead me to the same thing over and over again…LOVE. Four letters, yet I learned that it was the very glue that held every page of that bible together. From geneses chapter one all the way to revelation chapter 22,it was LOVE. LOVE is who God is, LOVE is what Christ did, Love is how we know, and are known, that we belong to Him.

Love is a word that we use very loosely here in this country, for example, I love pizza, I love that car, and so on. The bible, however, paints a completely different picture of what LOVE is. Love is a cross; Jesus demonstrated his love to us by giving his life on a cross. We as well, if we have true love, have a cross we bare. We stretch out our hands and feet and let the “world” crucify us. We who belong to Christ, who are true disciples, must carry our cross (or should I say lay down our lives)  Mt 16:24 “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” Without this cross, our cross, we cannot be his disciple. Lu 14:27 “And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple”. Remember dear reader, I did not write these scriptures. I know we can bend and twist any scripture to make us feel better about what it says, this too is a tradition of westernized Christianity, but I challenge you to simply believe what is says with no alterations.

Anyway, I set out to look for the true cross-baring love in the church, and WOW, was I disappointed in what I seen or, should I say, did not see. The love that I read about in scripture was virtually non-existent. Don’t get me wrong, there are people in the church system that do show the love of Christ, but ,for the most part, what God showed me broke my heart.

One example of this is found in 1john 2: 15-16; it says this, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, are not of the Father, but are of the world”. Christianity, as we know it today, is going after the world so much that they even make it gospel. You hear, so called, ministers of the gospel preaching sermons on how to conform to the world all the time these days. What is the result of these false teachers… their disciples, which is you and I, surender to “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life? Where does that leave us…without the love of the Father, go back and read 1 john 2:15-16 again. Today’s “Christians”, for the most part, work and work to gain riches in this world, and what is worse is they give God credit for giving it to them. When you see the heart of such disciples, it is easy to see that their goal is not for the kingdom of God, but rather for their own lustful desires. You may say how I can make such judgments on another man’s servant, but the scriptures tell me I can judge only one way, and that is by their fruit. The fruit of such “Christians” is easy to see…houses, cars, and big savings accounts.  Another way I can make such a judgment is the results of my own pathetic life. Remember, I, myself, am a product of westernized Christianity. It is extremely hard to see the residue of all the doctrine that has been poured into me over the years, and it is even harder to get it out.

I just recently set out to buy a pre-owned automobile for my family because all I had was this pick-up truck with a small-extended cab. I have three children and my wife, so this truck was excessively small; my kids are not getting any smaller if you know what I mean; therefore, my wife and I went out to get something practical. I had all the right things in my mind that would make our new vehicle a smart buy. We wanted something that was good on gas, something that was automatic, great safety fetchers, and nothing flashy, so we found a wagon that met “our” description of all of these things. To my wife and I, this was a great buy; however, what was not flashy in our eyes is not the same as not flashy in Gods eyes. The young people (teens) where we live where drooling over this car. They thought it was an awesome car, which is exactly why my wife and I did not want anything flashy. Those kinds of things will tempt a young heart to desire such worldly things. “If it is ok for Frank (me) to have a car like that then it’s ok for me to go after such a car. You might not think that this was a big deal, what is wrong with a nice car? Little things like that explode into much bigger things in a heart of a child. My point to all of this is this, even though my intentions where good, I still have a lot of scum in me that was imputed through the “American dream” doctrine taught to me through the years. Every man is right in his own eyes, but our ways are not God’s ways. Anyway, sorry for chasing that rabbit, let us get back to my revelation.   

John says if the things in this world are what you are after and desire, then the LOVE of Christ is not in you. In fact, Paul says we are to become poor so others may become rich; Not earthly riches, but by adoption into the beautiful kingdom of God. This is just one example of what God showed me during this time of cleansing. I could go on and on, but this is the dissected version remember. This revelation alone however, was enough for me to see that this, so called, church system lacks the very proof that enables us to know that they are true Disciples of Christ…what is that proof…the lack of cross bearing love.

I know what happens when one reads such words as I have written today; this self-righteous indignation rises up in you. All of a sudden, scriptures that have embedded themselves in various different rooms of your religious domain come to surface. You want to strike back with every verse of scripture you can muster; you must defend yourself against such an enemy that would attempt to tear down your comfortable dwelling place.  I did that for years. I do not want to convince you that I am right and you are wrong. I am not looking to get into some biblical debate of your vs. mine interpretation of what the scriptures are actually saying. Again, this blog is to simply challenge you to look at where you are, and ask yourself “am I truly in the body of Christ, or have I bought into a great deception?

I read a great book not too long ago by author, and fellow erroneous misfit, Shane Claiborne, in his book Irresistible Revolution, where he quoted a well-loved singer songwriter Rich Mullins. Rich, as he was speaking to a crowd of people at a university, said that we hear many preachers preaching about Nicodemus where he asked Jesus what he must do to be saved, and , as we all know, Jesus’ reply was to be born again. However, Rich brings to our attention another young man in scripture who asked the very same question…the rich young ruler. Jesus did not tell him that he must be born again; he told him to sell all that he has then give it to the poor. Why do we choose one scripture to anchor our faith in yet practically ignore another? Oh, we may hear a good sermon on the rich young ruler about how we must “be willing” to lay it all down for Christ, but the problem is Jesus did not tell him to be “willing” to sell all that he has. He told him that is what he must do to be saved. The problem is, if a preacher preached the truth of that scripture, most of us would react the same way that poor lad did…walk away sorrowful. This is just one, of thousands of examples of the polluted water-downed gospel that has infected our world, namely the western world. The sad thing is, we are taking that same message of westernized Christianity to the world. God, please open our eyes to see what we are doing.

Well, that is enough for today. If I have not completely lost you, I will continue the revelation of how God has brought me to where I am today at a later date. I have yet a great deal to share. Like I said in the intro, I will bring you up to date then I give you a week-to-week account of what God is doing in me. Once again, thank you for reading this blog, and feel free to give input in the comments section. My prayer is that God will help us all to open our hearts and let his light revel the dark truths that are dwelling therein.

Be sure to check out the video on my myspace, it brings a great ending to this blog entry. You can find the link on the right side of this blog page under blogroll.

As I mentioned in my last entry, I will be sharing my testimony once again for all of you who have not yet read it. It will be in several parts, scattered over the next few weeks. If you have read it already, I would encourage you to read it again, and make any comments, or ask questions that you would like. 

Hello friends, this will be my first real entry to my blog. I thank you for taking some time to read a little of what God has been doing in me. If you have not yet read my introduction to this blog, I ask that you read it first. Then read all of my blog entries in the order that they are written. Otherwise, some of what you read may make little since.

As I said in the introduction of this blog, I want to share with you a little of what God has brought me through, or should I say bringing me through, so in order to do that, I must take you back through some years. I will do my best not to bore you; therefore, I will give you the dissected version.

Where do I begin; It’s so hard to know where to start because for the past six or seven years God has taken me on such a journey it would make David and Goliath look more like David and the dwarf ( or at least that’s how it feels to me). It would take many pages to dictate what God has allowed me to see and experience on this journey, so I will do my best to keep it short and to the point as much as possible.

I came to know Christ when I was thirteen years old, and man what a change he made in me. I went from parent’s worst nightmare to a young man full of life and love for everyone. I was filled with joy unspeakable and full of glory. All I wanted to do was to share this amazing experience with everyone I encountered, and I wanted to know all I could about the One who brought this life to me. Little did I know, that same zeal for knowledge would be the very thing that would suck the very life out of me.  Anyway, I went to church, Sunday school, and bible studies; I was taught by elders, pastors and from anyone ells I could learn from. Man, I learned a great deal. I got to where I knew the scriptures and could debate with the best of them.

I was about seventeen when I first felt the call of God on me to preach the gospel, even though I did not answer that call until several years down the road. God seemed to be doing a great deal in me during those years; however, it seemed that the more I “went after Him” the farther away I got, and the farther away I got the more (at least in my mind) I would go after Him. I studied more and learned more. I became a minister of music, went to bible college, I was a youth pastor, a school guidance counselor at a Christian school, and a DJ at a Christian radio station. I was a Sunday school teacher, preached in churches, held revivals, evangelized cities, went on short term missionary trips, and I preached in another country. I seen God do some awesome things in those days.

There was great joy in preaching and telling people of an awesome redeemer who had come to save them from their inevitable destruction; however, inside I was still dying. Dying… how can this be? Somehow, in the midst of “doing God’s work”, I lost track of Him. I no longer had the joy, the peace, and the sweet presence of God that I fell in love with years earlier. What happened? I could not understand it; how could I have missed it? I did what I thought I was supposed to do as a God loving, God fearing Christian. I asked other preacher friends of mine if they knew what was going on in me and if they had ever experienced any such thing. More than one of them told me that what I was going through was called “the honeymoon factor” and what I was experiencing was the end of that honeymoon with God. They said that God was still with me as he was before, but I was no longer on the milk but on the meat. Much of what they told me made sense, but I knew in my heart that there was something greater amiss. I was now more determined than ever to come unto the fullness of God. I always knew in my heart that there was so much more than just knowing scriptures and “doing ministry. God would through me a crumb or two my way to let me know there was indeed more.

As I began seeking for the truth of my stalemate spirituality, God stood true to his word, “if you seek Him you will find Him”. God gave me a vision, or to sound a little less charismatic, a picture in my mind, of a room. This room was filled with pictures of God; you know… blue eyes, long blown dried hair, and a nice trimmed beard etc. There were bibles, banners with the names of God, and all kinds of memorabilia I had collected over the years. There was even a sweet fragrance of God filling the room, but God was nowhere to be found.  God was showing me that I had filled my life with nothing but memorabilia from the life I once had with him. This vision reminded me of a verse in Song of Solomon where she looked everywhere for her beloved; she would catch glimpses of him and even hear him at the door, but she looked and looked for her long lost lover with no avail. God began showing me more and more truth, which (I might add) scared me to death.

This is where I must stop for now. I have so much more to share with you, but for now, I must go. I will try, as I said in my intro, to write at least one entry a week; however, I will do my best to get more to you sooner. If any of my experiences sound familiar to you, I would love to hear about it. If anything offends you, feel free to share your heart as well. Until the next time, my prayer is that you seek God with all of your heart, so he can stand true to his word to you as well; That you will find Him and all His glory.