Mike Paschall . com

While hanging with the guys last night, I was reminded of a couple videos that were posted last year that messed me up.  I remembered all over again why I LOVE being involved with the amazing people I’m involved with.  The talent is crazy sick, but the heart and conviction of people who go and do The World Race is unexplainable!  Watch and be wrecked all over again!   -MDP-

NICHOLAS HINDES’ VIDEO – “Otto’s Gift”

JESSICA JOHNSON’S VIDEO – “Bangla Road to Redemption Road”

“The golden objective of God’s love is not our worship.  That would make Him a narcissist and God is not a narcissist.  It is not  our obedience.  That would make Him a controller and God is not a controller.  The golden objective of God’s love is for us to love Him back.  It is that simple!”  Anth Chapman

Make your way to the following website:    www.ecf-mcgregor.com

Anthony Chapman compiled lots and lots of incredible teaching into 2 sermons on the New Covenant.  Feel free to drop in and download those messages!  We (the Body of Christ) desperately need the understanding and freedom of this word!

-MDP-

Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all transgressions.” Proverbs 10:12, NAS

I’m convinced that there is nothing more confusing to the world than the message of the Gospel on the lips of people who have anger and hate in their heart.  Even our zealous control and any disposition towards that not “in” agreement with our theology or brand of spiritual knowledge has to be perplexing to say the least.  We have the best news in the world market, but we don’t seem to be able to deliver the goods on the appropriate plate.  Love is still the core of the message and until we can figure out how to lead with love, it might be best that we keep our efforts of evangelism and propaganda inside our own tribal backyard.  We have so much to learn from the unconverted about how to lead with love.

“Love covers”.  The word is kâcâh, kaw-saw´ and it means to plump up, fill up the empty spaces, or protect with concealed safety.  People have gaps that are reserved for love.  When our life is enriched by the “stuff” of love, we can be changed deeply with lasting effect.  Nothing touches us like love.  Nothing reveals the God in us like being love to someone else.  The number of ways to express such love is without containment.  When love shows, it’s almost always a surprise of some sort.  Thus, the power of its appearance can be stealthy, but deeply effective.

Paula D’Arcy tells the most amazing story about a transition she made from Texas to California.  She had her Hill Country dream home for sale for about seven months as she prepared her heart for this new thing that God was asking of her.  Everyone in that small town knew that she was trying to get on with the mission, but she really needed to sell that home.  Paula’s travel ministry had gotten crazy and she had come home for a couple days to wash clothes and open mail.  She stopped by to see her acupuncturist for a treatment.  He lived two hours away and worked in her town only a couple days a week.  When she entered the waiting room, Dr. Ho, who was Buddhist, greeted her in the waiting room and asked her if she had sold her house.  Paula had grown weary of the question.  He briefly told her, “I think I would like to buy your house.”  She thought little about the comment and took her treatment.  She had had many discussions with Dr. Ho about the philosophy of life, love and what it means to really live.  They had become close.  When she went to pay her bill, he asked when he might see the house.  Later that evening he dropped by and walked through the house, but never really said much about the layout.  After a couple hours he said, “Paula, I think I will buy your house.  What do you need to realize out of this transaction for you to go and do what you believe God has asked you to do?”  Paula explained, “That isn’t how it works.  I have an asking price.  We bargain.  We make a deal.”  He asked again, “What do you need to realize out of this transaction for you to go and do what you believe God has asked you to do?”  Then he added, “I think it is better for you to go and do what you believe you are supposed to do.  My wife and I love you.  That means that we do what we can for you.  Keep the keys.  The house is yours to enjoy as you can, but you need to go.”  Dr. Ho took a third mortgage on a home that he had no intentions of ever living in!  There is no way to explain this except…  Love blankets!

-MDP-

“An excellent wife, who can find? For her worth is far above jewels.”  Proverbs 31:10, NAS;  “A good woman is hard to find, and worth far more than diamonds.” Proverbs 31:10, MSG

“The kids were camped out at the neighbor’s house, so I lay in bed next to Anna.  She had been in and out all day.  Her breath’s had become shallow.  As I watched her chest slowly rise and fall, Anna gasped and gulped a bigger than usual breath.  I watched and told her once more, “Babe, it’s ok.  You can go on home”.  She didn’t breathe again.  I got out of bed and moved to the other side and looked at the woman I had loved for so many years.  She was full of faith until her last breath.  She had run her race.  It was over.” It was an unusual set of circumstances.  I was a new friend hanging out with his old friends, privileged beyond measure to hear this young father, who still has 4 kids to raise, tell his friends for the first time in 22 months, about the death of his best girl, his friend, his lover and sweet wife of 23 years.  We were in a crowded and active restaurant having dinner, but that place, at that table, in that time, became a holy and sacred space.  John poured it out for us without a tear.  I’m not sure I have ever swallowed down as much emotion as I did in those 15 minutes of his recollection.  My friends knew of the demons that John had stared down.  It hadn’t all been good or easy.  A part of himself had disappeared from his natural life.  It took a while to figure out how to walk with half of who he once was, now absent.   The counterbalance was gone.  The mystical sewing had unraveled.  Nothing filled the gap she had left in his heart.  Nothing.

I am absolutely convinced that God’s biggest “I love you!” to most married men manifests through our wife’s love for us.  My own wife has taught me how to receive and give love in ways I never imagined.  She has brought things to the surface that would have never come to light out of my heart’s shadow.  She has shown me the better way to be, live and love.  I am fully aware of the power in God’s atonement for mankind, but my girl has been “Jesus with skin” for 30+ years.  I know the cross was love.  I get it.  I know Jesus, I know Father God, and I know the Holy Spirit, and I see and understand His great love for me in thousands of ways.  But, back when I didn’t get any of those things, He loved me, took care of me, got my back, loved on my future by giving me the love of my life.   When I see her (and I don’t always see her) I understand how much God loves me.  I got a gift.  I thought I just married the hottest chick on the planet.  True enough, but in actuality, I found an excellent wife.

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her” Ephesians 5:25, NAS. Guys, we need to pay more attention to the treasure He has given us.  Serve more, say the words “I am thankful for you” more, be more, do more… love more.  Do it while you can.  She deserves it.

-MDP-