Home From California

Night Rockets are always interesting.  Last night’s flight was no exception.  I normally choose not to fly them, either as a pilot or a passenger.  There is just something about trying to race to land before the sun comes up that is sick.  Sick in a bad way, not the “new sick” that means it’s great.  But last night we were just passengers.  When the morning started and I checked the flight it looked like we might have a chance to get in first class.  But even first class on a night rocket isn’t that great.  As the day wore on, it was obvious we would ride in the back.  Then it got to the point that we just hoped we got on. 

But back to last night’s flight.  I have always thought that a full moon brought out the weird people.  I don’t know if the moon was full, but there were definitely some weirdo’s on that plane.  Last night there were a number of them, but I think the one sitting by us was probably the winner.  Here we were, happy we got on the plane.  We were even happier that we were sitting together.  I was definitely happy that I had an aisle seat.  Life was going to be good.  Then we went to our seat; row 33, the last row on the airplane.  It was right by the aft lav’s.  any happy thought I had about an aisle seat vanished with the thoughts of lines of people standing in the aisle waithng to go to the bathroom.  I have been continually jostled before sitting where I was going to sit.  It wasn’t looking nearly as rosy.

Then they came.  Notice I said “they”.  Noe there is only one window seat left.  Every seat on the plane was taken, so where you had your ticket was where you sat.  So here “they” come.  This pretty big woman in a big thick heavy coat carrying a case with a little dog in it.  Now up until a few years ago, that was totally illegal.  I still think it should be.  But if you pay enough money, you can pretty much do anything these days.  Well, she was supposed to put the dog case, with the dog, under the seat in front of her.  Sheryl and I had to get out of our seats, and wait almost 10 minutes for her to try and get situated.  Then, we had to almost push the coat out of the way for Sheryl to sit.  I still don’t understand how she was able to even get in the seat with the dog and the coat, but somehow she wedged herself in.

I was afraid that it was going to be a long night, especially Sheryl.  She was talking to her.  I just pulled my cap down over my eyes and petended to go to sleep.  So here the “four” of us are on the back row in three seats.  She was constantly talking to the dog almost all night.  He was her best friend.  I was thinking to myself that I could certainly understand that.  She was supposed to keep the dog in the cage.  I knew within five minutes of the flight that there was no way that dog was ging to stay in the crate all night.  Sure enough about five minutes later, I saw her motioning the dog up into her lap.  I almost told the flight attendent, but I asked Sheryl and she said it didn’t bother her.  I figured that if we didn’t say anything, maybe she and the dog would be much quieter and happier.  I was right, and the rest of the night was really a pretty good flight.

Anyway, we both did get some sleep.  I got a couple of hours and Sheryl got a little over three.  She cheated and took drugs, but I am glad she got was able to sleep.  We have been going hard all day, and I think that this will be it for the post.  I sue is fun to be home.

The Almond Bowl

The Chico area produces a lot of almonds.  In fact the whole upper central valley produces almonds, olives, rice and tomatoes along with many other fruits.  It is a big part of our nation’s bread basket.  I’m not sure, but I know that a high percentage of our nation’s almond crop come from this area.  That’s why this race this weekend was the 37^th annual Almond Bowl.  There were three races; a marathon, half marathon and a 5K.  I was supposed to run the half marathon, but because I really didn’t train very much, I backed out and only ran the 5K.  Shoot, I haven’t really been training enough for that race; at least not enough to do a good job.

My plan was to go out and run a very slow pace and just use it as a training run.  Lately, my pace has been getting slower and slower.  To be honest, I figured that it would tae me around 40 minutes to finish.  If I did that, I would have been happy.  But when the race started what I though was a slow pace turned out to be faster than I had anticipated by about 2 minutes a mile.  It felt good the first mile, and I was able to keep it up for the entire race.  So I finished in about 32 minutes.  It was a beautiful day to run.  A little on the chilly side, but no rain.  We ran through Bidwell Park, amongst the oak trees and creeks.  The whole run, even the marathon was in this big beautiful park.  It was a great run.

I know that God was going to show me something, but I didn’t expect it to be what He actually did show me.  I realized after I finished my run that I have not had motivation to run in almost two years.  Sure, I ran the Peachtree Road Race in 2010, but I really wasn’t motivated.  I ran it because I had always run it, and it was tradition.  Last year, we were in Australia and I had to skip it.  But it really didn’t bother me.  Anyway, there are a couple of areas that I have been not motivated to succeed in, and running was one of them.  Why, I  am not sure, but we are going after them now.  Today, my competitive juices got stirred up again, and that’s a good thing. 

Running, health and diet are all tied up together in my life, and I am looking forward to pressing in on my running because that will also impact my health and my diet.  In order to run good, I have to lose weight and that will help me with my diet.  I had a good day hanging out with Levi and his family.  I have enjoyed getting to know them.  We will be here most of the day tomorrow, but have to leave tomorrow night.  It’s been a good time connecting with all of them.  They are a neat family and I look forward to them coming back to Atlanta.  It’s been a good trip to the west coast, but it will be good to get back to Atlanta on Tuesday morning.  I will probably write my blog on the plane, however I might not be able to post  until Tuesday morning.  Until then, have a great time!

Chico Ca

Today we drove down to Chico to see Levi, Amber and the kids.  We went through Cottonwood and I saw where Sheryl taught school for 13 years.  Then we drove to Pine Bluff to see where she lived for over 20 years.  The drive gave me insights on Sheryl that might have taken years otherwise. It was a good morning.  We finally got to Levi’s house in Chico around 10:30.  We had just enough time to  get in and say our hellos when we had to go to the Chico Farmers market in downtown.  They have it every Thursday night and Saturday morning.  This time of year it is not nearly as full and plentiful as it is in the spring and summer, but it had plenty of stuff.

The market was incredible.  It is certified local and organic.  They had every green you could imagine there.  They also had fresh raw nuts and mushrooms.  There were some different Indian foods as well as other oriental dishes.  As I looked around the market I couldn’t help but think of Lisa and how much she would like it here.  It was a pretty cold and blustery morning and it was cold when we were walking around.  After the market we walked through downtown and it was very nice and sort of eclectic.  Then we went and walked around the campus of Chico State.   It’s a beautiful campus .  There are about 19000 students, so it isn’t that small.  However it does have the small time feel that the school needs to really thrive. We then toured the Bidwell Mansion.  It was really great too.  I knew that I was in the wrong place when I found saw a picture of General Sherman in his office.  It seems that Bidwill and Sherman were really close friends.  I guess you could say that I am not in the south anymore.

 

We had lunch downtown and it was great too.  Then we came home and we played this game on X – Box.  It’s really Xbox Konnect and has sports games.  It’s a lot of fun and the boys and I did it for a long time.  Then we were able have a great time tonight with the movie.  I really do like Chico, and I can see why Sheryl would like it more than Redding.  I’ll know more tomorrow.  I’m running the 5K race and Amber is running the half marathon.  It will be fun except for the cold in the morning,  Anyway it should be fun.  Yes, I could definitely see myself living here if that is what we were called to do.  It looks like a great day tomorrow and I am sure that Papa is going to show me something during the race.  

Rekindled and Refired

So, the Sozo Summit is over, at least for us.  Tomorrow morning we leave for Chico and Sheryl’s kids.  The Summit actually wraps up tomorrow afternoon, but I’m glad we are leaving, but I think we got everything that we needed to get.  So, what was that really?  We didn’t get any “teaching” on Sozo. But we got a lot of Kingdom principals and the main thing we needed:  Encouragement.

I didn’t really know that we needed any encouragement, but being here and hearing other people’s testimonies mad us realize how much we did need it.  When you think about it, we have both been through a lot this year, and running a ministry is hard.  I don’t care how much you love it and how committed you are, it is hard to keep something running, let alone rebuild it.  It’s amazing that so many people feel just like we feel sometimes.  We know that we are valued,, but so many times we feel so alone and like no one really cares what we are doing.  Of course that is not true.

It’s easier to see that when you are looking at someone else.  But it’s true about us also.  By hearing others, we can idietify the lie that we are believing about ourselves.  Tonight at dinner, we were talking with people from Switzerland, England, Australia and many more nations.  They are all involved with Sozo and were talking about similar problems.  It’s amazing to see that we are all on the same page.  It’s totally amazing to be involved with these guys  and realize that we are involved with a ministry that stretches all over the world.  Sozo is so much bigger than our little world.  So, yes we were encouraged.  We go back with renewed vigor to go after the things of the Kingdom.  It’s going to be a fun ride.

Loving California

I could really enjoy living here in Redding.  No, I’m not about to up and move tomorrow, but it’s always tempting when I am here to at least think about what it would be like to live here.  Today we spent listening to many from the Bethel Senior Leadership team.  We heard Banning Leibsher; Eric and Candice Johnson; Danny Silk and Steve Da Silva.  It was a great time, and the wisdom and anointing that flowed from these speakers was overwhelming.  So, spiritually, it would be fun living here.

It also would be great because it is so simple to get around.  You are never more than twenty minutes from almost anywhere in Redding.  It’s easy to get around and they have my three favorite stores: Costco, Trader Joes and Kholes.  What more do you need in life to shop?  They have numerous Starbucks along with In and Out Burger.   But the best thing that they have is the Sacramento River.  It is awesome, with it’s bike paths and running trails.  The winter’s are mild and the springs and falls are very nice. 

The only negative is the summer weather.  The temperature can reach 110 easily, even though it’s dry heat, it still would be very necessary.  The fresh produce is amazing here in Northern California.  The people up here are pretty down to earth, much like in the south and it would be easy to fit in.  However it’s not really going to happen.  We are just getting settled into Peachtree City, and it looks like we are going to enjoy it there.  Goo would really have to speak to get us to move.  I’m not saying that it will never happen, because we don’t know all that He has in store for us.  But right now, things are going pretty well.

But it’s fun to dream, and if He were to ever release to move somewhere out west, Redding would be at the top of the list.  Another great thing is the view of Mt Shasta.  You can’t get a view like that in Atlanta.  Oh well, back to reality.  The conference is going well.  We will be going to Chico early Sat morning.  Seeing the grandkids is going to be great.  Sheryl says that Chico is nicer than Redding.  If so, I can’t wait to see that town too.  I know that we will have a great time.  It’s good to be back out here.  

  

Off to Redding

It’s hard to believe that it is November already.  It’s even harder to believe that we will be leaving for Redding CA in the morning.  Today was a great day. I was off, and I spent the morning studying and preparing for my talk at school tonight.  I was teaching a prophetic manual tonight.  I covered chapter’s one thru three.  It’s pretty dry stuff, but I was able to interject some life and testimonies into it that helped keep it lively and the students awake. I taught for 45 minutes and then we had 45 minutes of prophetic activation.  I had asked Heidi to help me, and she was awesome on the activation.

It was a good night and during the boiler room, I could sense that Holy Spirit was really moving strong.  A lot of the staff was absent tonight because they are already in Redding for the Leadership conference.  We will be there tomorrow afternoon for the Sozo Conference.  It really will be a great time and I am looking forward to seeing Sheryl’s son’s family in Chico after the conference.  The drive from Sacramento to Redding is a little over two hours and is very easy.  We should make it in plenty of time for the conference. 

What we really need to understand is that we are under Bethel Redding, and that their pastors really in many ways direct us.  Tonight we will have to understand what it is that Jesus really wants to do in our lives.  That’s not a hard to do, especially when we sense that we didn’t know.  I didn’t know it’s  going to be brighter that it has ever been before,

Hopefully I will be able to blog in Redding.  I plan on it, but the only reason that we won’t will be if we are too busy seeing friends and family.  It’s late, and I really don’t feel that I have a lot to give, so hopefully we will be able to test everything tomorrow night as we stand and say goodbye.  

Religion VS Relationship

What do you do with someone when they mess up?  I mean do you punish them when they are so down on themselves that it’s like putting bricks onto a drwoning man.  No, of course not.  The Kingdom is about relationship, not following the rules.  Sure, when you break certain rules, you have to suffer the consequences.  But it’s not my job as pastor to condemn.  No, it’s my job to encourage them to do a better job.

Sometimes it’s easier to do this than at other times.  Tonight it was pretty easy, but last week it was hard.  Why is it that I feel that I can’t trust one person while I can trust another.  Both of them violated the rules.  Both deserved to be punished.  But I chose not to punish either one of them.  How does that work out?  I don’t know, but I think the person that you are ministering to has to have a good attitude.  That is the key, and hopefully it will allow us to really understand how we mess up and help keep it from happening again.  But how we respond to criticism is the key to mobbing forward in the Kingdom. 

As I analyze both situations I do realize that their attitudes were totally different.  They both were wrong, but one of the guys could not admit that he had done anything wrong, while the other had admitted his mistakes and was ready to be healed.  That’s a huge difference.  One of them we can work with, the other you can’t.  So I am willing to work with anyone that is willing to work.  Otherwise, we will have to go it alone.  It will be fun, but definitely different. 

As you can probably tell, school has had it’s problems.  Nothing that is affecting everyone, but definitely something that has to be dealt with for one of her students.  Well, it’s late, and tomorrow is another day.  That’s all for us tonight.