This Storm

Sarah and Michael

So many of you have been praying for my family over the past two years and I cannot thank you enough.  God has taught our family so much about relying on Him when our boy Nicky spent so much time in the hospital in 2010 and 2011, teetering a few times on the edge of this life.  God taught us to pursue Him in prayer for healing and deliverance but also for peace and trust in His perfect will.  We saw God move in powerful ways, bringing restoration to Nicky's body when there appeared to be no options left.  

You prayed with us when we shared with you the news that our newborn baby, Michael, was diagnosed with Down Syndrome and was in need of open heart surgery to correct his tiny, incomplete heart.  Once again, God was teaching us to lean into His loving arms, to put aside our selfish plans and dreams and make room for His plans and His dreams for our lives.  You prayed and celebrated with us when God miraculously gave Michael "full range of perfect hearing" after being declared severely and profoundly deaf since birth.  What a privilege it has been to walk the peaks and valleys of this life with you.  

This past April (7 weeks ago) brought a trial unlike anything we've experienced before when "someone in our community" called Pennsylvania's Abuse Hotline accusing Sarah of the abuse and neglect of Michael.  Children & Youth Services (CYS) came to our door and interrogated Sarah for hours. The next day, the day of Michael's second heart surgery to help his lack of weight gain, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh also filed an accusation of Munchausen's by Proxy, indicating that Sarah was trying to starve Michael.  At that point CYS interviewed Michael's Down Syndrome specialist who went on record stating he believed Sarah was "willfully withholding calories from Michael."  This could not have been further from the truth.  (She was actually feeding him 300+ more calories per day than necessary!)

The words absolutely devastating don't begin to describe the level of pain and hurt this inflicted on Sarah's heart.  Sarah has given and done SO much, lovingly caring for our children at home and in the hospital.  To be accused of abuse, neglect and the withholding of food is ridiculous but also an extremely heavy burden to bear.  We were threatened with the removal of all three of our boys, but the option was given for my Mother to move in for the purpose of overseeing Sarah, ensuring she was, in fact, feeding Michael and not neglecting him.  Instance after instance, CYS ignored our requests to contact specific Therapists and Doctors who would provide information in support of Sarah's superb care for our children.  We felt from the beginning that this was an attack from the enemy and were moved to not only pray for truth to prevail, but to worship the Lord in the midst of our suffering, just like Job did when he said, "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away.  Blessed be the name of the Lord."

One month later, May 15th, CYS released my Mother to go home to Georgia, her husband, her job and her life.  The time she spent with us that month was life giving to us and I am, and have always been, forever in her debt.  Sarah's case was deemed "unfounded" which only means that at the end of the first 30 days, not enough evidence was found to prove her guilty.  We received a new case worker with intent to consider closing the case over the next 3 months at least.  THIS IS NOT OVER.  We covet your prayers.  Agents still make scheduled and unscheduled visits to our home to ensure Sarah is not abusing our children.  We try to take them as opportunities to show the love of Jesus.  It is however, a struggle not to feel like they are the enemy when they pull into our driveway.  We know the truth however.  Ephesians 6:12 says, "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."   

Lord, we pray for deliverance.  

Lord, we pray for truth to prevail. 

Lord, we praise You because Your ways are higher. 

Lord, we believe You have a plan not to harm us. 

But to give us a future and a hope. 

We trust in You. 

Hearing Test Result

The result of Michael's hearing test came back.  Our son Michael who was clinically profoundly and severely deaf now has clinically perfect hearing in both ears!  Previous audio testing showed flat lines in both ears.  Now both have mountain peaks in the normal hearing range...and that was before they were able to clear the fluid and wax out of his ears, which indicates that his hearing is even stronger than the tests indicated.

He was intensely prayed over on Friday and began to show immediate indication that he could hear: turning toward Sarah when she would call him (never happened before), babbling along with worship on Sunday morning as we sang and a few more indicators.  We were strongly encouraged to continue praying for confirmed healing.  We just happened to have this test lined up today! :)  Divine healing still happens!!!

PRAISE THE LORD GOD WHO HEALS!!!

Prayer request from Sarah

Do you believe that what the Bible says is true? Do you believe that Jesus came, He healed, He died and He rose? Do you believe that we, as believers, possess the authority and power that Jesus did when he healed the deaf? I do.

In John 14:12 Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father."

With everything in me I believe these words. If you are a believer, then take hold of your inheritance and pray big! Pray with the authority and the power that Jesus did. And watch God move. Watch God heal. Watch God blow your mind.

Michael is undergoing a hearing test today that will determine which type of hearing aid he will need. The tests run in the recent past have shown severe to profound loss. Doctors say we need to move forward with aiding his hearing so his speech isn't too effected in the future. I agree. We need to do something. I believe God can heal him and I believe that power of that healing is in us. Will he? I don't know, but I will pray with the expectation that He will. Devastation happens everyday and people plead with God, beg God for a different outcome, a healing, a redo in life, and the result isn't always what we desire, but we have to lean into what Isaiah 55:9 says about His ways being higher than ours. We may not always understand, but we need to trust that our God is good, He is who He says He is, He is Love and we can trust him.

It's important to me that our little boy can hear and I will do whatever is necessary for him to attain that, but first, I will pray with the authority that has been bestowed upon me by the God of the Universe. Please pray with me. It is very important to me that you go into prayer on our behalf with the confidence that this is possible, so I'd encourage you to first bind, or ask God to take away, any doubt that this is possible and then loose, or ask God to fill you with, an unyielding faith that what the doctors claim to be impossible, IS possible. This is not just thinking on the bright side or being positive… This is declaring that the miraculous Can happen and you believe it.

Please pray with us today. Go before the Father with the boldness and confidence that He created you to walk in.

-Sarah

3 Promises from Proverbs 3

I'm sitting outside on a sunny, cool Pennsylvania Saturday morning, the Rudy soundtrack and welcome-home birds filling the crisp air, reading Proverbs 9 when a breeze blew my page back to Proverbs 3.  The subtitle of that chapter is "Wisdom Bestows Well-Being".  What a great chapter, with the famous verses 5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight."  I love that promise.  I try to make those kind of passages my prayers.  "Lord, may I trust You with all my heart and not lean on my own understanding, may I submit to You in all my ways, believing that You will make my paths straight! I can bank on that."

Verse 7 also has a promise. "Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones."  When we harbor sin in our lives, refusing to address it, ignoring the Spirit that lovingly, yet insistently, calls out to our spirit for holiness, it can physically affect us!  It's not a punishment (that was taken care of at the cross!) but it's a byproduct, a side effect, a consequence!  Few people deny the effect the mind can hold over the body (We see something gross and it can turn our stomachs!) It is the same when we know we are not living as we are called to and we try to carry that weight ourselves.  Bank on it.

The third promise I read is in the next verse. "Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing; and your vats will brim over with new wine." Giving to God, of our time, our talents and our treasure makes sense! (Randy Alcorn has written multiple books on this subject.)  Pastors may be hesitant to talk about tithing because it could come across as their desiring selfish gain, but not only is giving to God of our wealth (the firstfruits of our wealth) beneficial to the furthering of God's Kingdom here on earth, but it's in our own best interest!  I have no intention to preach a prosperity gospel here!  God forgive me if I am.  But I do believe that God will provide our needs just as Jesus promises in Luke 12:27 when He reminds us God clothes the flowers of the field with more splendor than Solomon ever displayed, so how much more will He clothe us, His children?

Give freely to God's work, give generously, give joyously! Honor the Lord with the firstfruits of your wealth and bank on the promise attached.  

Strange Graces

King Josiah remorseful

I woke up in my Comfort Inn bed this morning on my own, feeling quite rested, a nice change after 5 days of a head cold and restless nights.  My voice has been shot for the last two days, which happened to be over my trip to Nashville to have my photo shoot for the next album (July 17).  I have some time before my meeting with Centricity this morning so I threw open the curtains, turned the AC to Heat and crawled back in bed with my Bible.  I opened up to 2 Kings 21 and very studiously thought, "ok, sure."

I read of King Manasseh, who did what the Lord said was wrong.  Everything God told His children to do, Manasseh did horrible things on the opposite end of the spectrum for 55 years.  Then he died, and his son Amon became king at age 22 and did the same things his father did.  He did what the Lord said was wrong, then he was killed by his own officers.  His son Josiah became king at age 8.

Josiah did what the Lord said was right.

At age 18 he discovered the Book of the Law in the Temple, and when it was read to him, he tore his clothes to show how upset he was.  He sought out the advice of God's prophetess Huldah who delivered the message from God,  "I will bring trouble to this place and to the people living here... they have made me angry by all they have done, my anger burns against this place like fire and it will not be put out."  

Then God lets Josiah know that He saw his remorse.

"When you heard my words...you became sorry for what you had done and humbled yourself before Me...You tore your clothes to show how upset you were and you cried in My presence.  This is why I have heard you." 

Then God extends a strange grace.

"So I will let you die and you will be buried in peace.  You won't see all the trouble I will bring to this place."

God was going to let him DIE!? This struck me so hard.  Death, that we often see only as tragic calamity or a trial to be endured, was administered as a grace from God in this instance.  He remained true to His word, but administered grace and allowed Josiah to rule for 23 more years.

God's ways are always higher than our ways!

Communication Breakdown

Just had a pretty ordinary event teach me a pretty cool lesson. 

DirecTV just came by to check something on our TV service that involved our internet.  I warned the 2 men who braved the 6 degree weather with wind chills of -20ºF that our internet was temperamental: sometime it's blazing fast, then it decides to take a nap and not work at all.  I'll reset the router and unplug it for 30 seconds (like all my tech savvy friends tell me to do) and eventually it works again.  It's a nuisance and frankly I haven't called [our service provider] to have them come troubleshoot, because you know as soon as they come it will work fine.  

It was obvious to my DirecTV friends why.  The wrong cables were installed.  Where there should be RD6 cables, standard evidently, [service provider] installed RD59s which is why our internet keeps dropping out.  So I need to call [awesome service provider] and have them wire my house properly, then we can get the TV working as it should.  

So now after all the fumbling and jumbling with the connections, our internet won't turn back on, our Home Security System somehow is telling us there's trouble and is beeping randomly and this can evidently affect our phone line too!  I'm posting this blog by grabbing wifi from one of my neighbors.  I don't know which one.  The one without the password.  Thanks, neighbor. 

Lightbulb moment: When my primary lifeline of spiritual food is cut off, or spotty at best, my interactions with all other areas of life are going to be dramatically affected.  

When I'm not hearing clearly from God and His Word, my work, my wife, my kids, my friends & my family suffer and I'm unable to handle the curveballs that life hurls at me.  I need to find out what it is in my life that I can identify as "the wrong cable", yank that sucker out, replace it with something that's going to allow me to receive clear messages from my Provider!  I know that will affect all other areas of my life: communication with those within my home, friends outside my home and my security in Him.

"Remain in Me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in Me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in Me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be My disciples."

-Jesus (John 15:4-8)

Simple Prayer

I started reading a book by Richard J Foster called Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home and I'm finding it one of the more easy books to read.  The first chapter is called Simple Prayer and I've found it incredibly freeing as I desire to be known among the forces of darkness as a man who prays.  That concept first struck me when I was in high school and reading Frank Peritti's This Present Darkness.  The young Pastor of a small country church was known simply by menacing demons as "the man who prays." 

Foster addresses the notion "that we have to have everything 'just right' in order to pray. That before we can really pray, our lives need to some fine tuning, or we need to know more about how to pray, or we need to study the philosophical questions surrounding prayer, or we need to have a better grasp of the great traditions of prayer.  And on it goes." 

We've all heard the eloquent (and truly sincere and beautiful) prayers of others and think that when it's our turn to pray out loud we'll probably be perceived as grade-schoolers for our simplicity.  But is that not what Jesus said is required to enter the Kingdom?  To change and become like little children?  Foster describes the simple prayer:

In simple prayer we bring ourselves before God just as we are, warts and all.  Like children before a loving father, we open our hearts and make our requests.  We do not try to sort things out, the good from the bad.  We simply and unpretentiously share our concerns and make our petitions.  We tell God, for example, how frustrated we are with the co-worker at the office or the neighbor down the street.  We ask for food, favorable weather, and good health. 

Foster goes on to state that Simple Prayer is the most common form of prayer in the Bible! 

Don't be afraid to pray simply and know that in doing so, you are in good company!

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More quotes from Chapter 1 for the curious: 

Simple Prayer involves ordinary people bringing ordinary concerns to a loving and compassionate Father.  -Foster

We never outgrow this kind of prayer, because we never outgrow the needs which give rise to it. -John Dalrymple

To believe that God can reach us and bless us in the ordinary junctures of daily life is the stuff of prayer. -Foster

We should feel perfectly free to complain to God, or argue with God or yell at God...God is perfectly capable of handling our anger and frustration and disappointment. - Foster

Lay before Him what is in us, not what ought to be in us. - C.S. Lewis