Florida Revolution

Hearing God in these times

DaveinFL — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 15:43:46 +0000

It seems that the Lord has truly been dealing with me personally and with the house church that I am part of regarding God’s appointed times. We have learned in the last several months that the Feasts that many call the Feasts of Israel are in fact the Feasts of God. We have also learned that the Shabbat (Sabbath) is an appointed time with God and has never been intended to be relegated to the use of legalistic people to use as a weapon against the rest tht we in in the Father and the freedom that we have in Christ by demanding that their interpretation of the Sabbath and their rituals be adopted by other Christians. It also appears that all signs are now pointing to Yeshua’s soon return and, according to Matthew 24, that will be right after the tribulation. As a result we are discussing ways that we are to be prepared both spiritually and practically for the time of tribulation that we have entered and for its intensifying in the very near future. It surely would be encouraging to hear your input on some of these topics.

Dave In Florida

Passover, 2010

DaveinFL — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 19:48:01 +0000

Last evening I participated in my first Seder. Several of us had gathered at our friends, Lance and Toni’s house and were waiting on one more person to arrive before we started the Seder. Our friends have their house up for sale and had a FOR SALE sign posted in their front yard. A very small auto stopped in front of the house and the couple in it asked if they could speak to the owner’s. Toni and Lance went outside to talk with them and the next thing we knew the couple, who were at that time strangers to all us, agreed to join with us for the evening!

We soon discovered that the couple, Jerry and Marsha, were from Palmetto, Florida, and were camping nearby. They decided to ride around and look at some houses for sale and “Papa” brought them to Floral City.

We have a very loving and relational house church and it wasn’t long before Jerry and Marsha were no longer strangers, but just a part of “Papa’s” family that entered into our worship of Yeshua through the Seder meal. Praise You, Lord! What a wonderful evening!

Dave in Florida

WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN, DAVID?

DaveinFL — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:34:38 +0000

If you have checked out this blog in the last year you know that I have been absent from it. God has been shaking up my paradigm with some questions that make me uncomfortable. So…, I am in the process of working through those items.

Also, I am involved in updating both the Florida Revolution site and the VineLife Communities site. Got my hands full! Pray for me.

David

Dealing With Criticism In 2009

DaveinFL — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 14:34:49 +0000

In my first blog of 2009, I want to share with you some helpful thoughts on handling the criticisms that will come your way this year. A primary consideration for handling criticism is to consider its source. Some critics can be your “best friends” in whatever you are attempting to accomplish. God puts such people in our paths for our benefit. Others can be detrimental to us if we take them too seriously. They may well be obstacles to our Christian health if we accept their criticism out of a false sense of “piety and obligation.” We may find ourselves being tossed about “by every wind” of criticism.

Jesus did not accept every criticism leveled at Him! It seems like He was always being criticized, mostly by “religious” people. His reaction was to discern their spirits, and then respond to them accordingly.

A very wise man once said, “I will accept criticism only from someone who has something to gain from my success. Some think you ought to keep an open mind, but if you keep it too open, people throw garbage in it.”

Here are some questions that may help discern our critic’s spirit:

A. “What action on your part brought on the criticism?”

B. “What motivated the person to criticize?”

C. “Do they have a critical spirit?’

D. “Is their intent to help or hurt us.., constructive or destructive?”

Asking questions of this kind will help us identify genuine, honest, interested critics who have our best at heart. These critics feel a responsibility for our welfare, or that of the organization, and are the easiest to turn into coaches! They usually have thought of a solution to the problem they are criticizing! These people are like buoys in the river: they help to keep you in the channel. Value them!

The ideal would be for us to always be able to turn critics into coaches. Realistically, this just will not happen. One way of having a greater success ratio, however, would be to model what we want. In other words, if we want people to have a right spirit and a right purpose when they criticize, we must also be sure of our motives when and if we criticize! Is our criticism motivated by a desire to see them succeed in their gifts and callings.? Can we offer a legitimate solution to the problem? If not, then we need to restrain our tongue. “It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness!” Invalid criticism is like “cursing the darkness.” I have found that it doesn’t really change things.

DaveinFlorida

A Sign of The Times – Disobedience

DaveinFL — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 19:11:18 +0000

At a meeting a while back a number of us were discussing various issues that we felt were pertinent to the times in which we live. I won’t try to recall all that was shared, but essentially we were discussing things that we felt God was revealing to us. The topic moved to discipleship. I mentioned that I had felt impressed by the Lord that we should encourage people to focus on obedience regarding the commands of Christ they already knew rather than just feeding them more intellectual knowledge about God. A young man 35 years my junior became somewhat agitated and said something to the effect of, “It is alright for people your age to talk about obedience (I turned 71 this year)…, but that is not where my generation comes from. We are not into obedience. I don’t even obey God!” He then proceeded to attack the very principle of obedience and summed it up by saying, “I am into ‘responding’ to the commands of Christ, not obeying. I reject the thought of obedience.”

Another elder brother spoke up, “You know, Jesus said, ‘If you love me you will obey my commandments.’ What do you do with that?” There was only awkward silence from the young man.

I have thought about that exchange a lot since that meeting and have asked myself the question, “Is this what the Church’s efforts regarding the command to, ‘Go and make disciples’ have produced? Why was that young man so angry and why did he speak so arrogantly about willful disobedience of God?” Perhaps his anger is anchored in our proud traditions of independence, political correctness, no absolutes and the myriad of other deceptive “norms” that have been embraced by the Church in America. Rather than discipleship, most churches concentrate on their ABC’s: Attendance, Buildings, and Collections. This focus may produce good “church members” but it doesn’t produce disciples of Jesus! As a matter of fact, compromising Kingdom principles to grow a larger congregation may well be the seedbed that produced this devastating harvest of rebellion and rejection of the absolutes of the Kingdom of God in our younger generations. Lord, help us to come to a place of repentance! Help us to learn and walk in obedience! Mold us into true disciples of Jesus!

DaveinFlorida

THE REAL LAST MOVE OF GOD

DaveinFL — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 13:20:55 +0000

As a result of all of the current political and financial turmoil in the world, people in some religious circles are trying to put together a failsafe system that will provide for them in times of famine, riots, wars, etc. Others are trying to set themselves up as God’s authorities on a variety of scenarios they claim to be the current move of God, in an attempt to gather a following and lead a movement. The following article by Charles Newbold, Jr, puts some perspective to all of the conjecture in his REAL LAST MOVE OF GOD.

The real last move of God doesn’t need a man to lead it, doesn’t need a band to hype it, doesn’t need a building to corral it, doesn’t need a billboard to promote it, doesn’t need intercessors to pray it in, doesn’t need a TV show or even a microphone to barker it, doesn’t need a PR program to defend it. Can’t take up an offering for it or seed into it, can’t hype or manipulate it, can’t own it.

It has already begun in the secret places of men’s hearts, men who rarely even know one another. It is already taking place in the hidden corners of David’s cave of Adullam where a few misfits and malcontents have hidden out in Jesus and are being quietly shaped into a mighty army of glorified sons. A few here and there are being knitted together in love whose light, when they cross paths, becomes greater than the sum of the two, or three, or four, or whatever number they are.

It is the light of life, the very life of God they radiate, exposing the darkness and causing turmoil everywhere they go – unspoken, but spoken against; loving, but hated by the world; merciful, but treated unmercifully; strong through brokenness; powerful in weakness; mighty men of valor without guile or malice; strong and powerful in the Lord without gender.

Released one by one, becoming two by two, becoming four by four, then eight by eight – on an exponential curve. Yes, a movement to end all revivals.

Can’t start it, can’s stop it, can’t own it, can’t harness it, can’t telecast it, can’t alter it, can’t do anything about it. It is already in motion and is bigger than any man or collection of men. It is the coming forth of Zion, the ushering in of Tabernacles – the feast of the Ingathering; that is, Jesus gathering unto Himself His true assembly of called-out-ones.

These are those who are called, chosen, and will be found faithful. Nevertheless, whosoever will may come. Either way, all were known before the foundation of the world.

AMEN!

DaveinFlorida

Resetting Your Center

DaveinFL — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 12:06:53 +0000

The events of these past few weeks have truly pointed out how self-centered we are as a nation. Because of the greed of some our financial markets have collapsed, the housing industry has taken a dive and almost dried up, and our government’s answer was to print more money for a bailout. Then the automobile Big Three, after years of mismanagement and caving in to the demands of the UAW for more benefits and bigger paychecks for it members, have found themselves on the verge of bankruptcy. Their response to the situation they found themselves in was an attempt to frighten the nation into meeting their demands with their own financial bailout. The governor of Illinois’s greed and self-centeredness gets exposed when he tries to sell a US Senate seat to the highest bidder, which, by the way doesn’t really shock the political world though shock was feigned by many. When man is self-centered rather than God centered, he has no moral compass!

DeVerne Fromke, in his book, THE ULTIMATE INTENTION, discusses how three different segments of Christendom make man the center of everything.

“The Liberal sees the desperate needs of mankind and would emphasize the social work that needs to be done by man.

The Fundamentalist, while recognizing social needs, knows the emphasis must first be placed on understanding that which God has done for man.

A third segment, often called the holiness groups, insists that all this is too shallow and they would place the emphasis rather on the work which God must do in man.

While each segment carries forward in terms of its emphasis, and the battle may sometimes rage between them, the real issue is altogether missed. It is man they are primarily occupied with. There is another side of the coin which has too long been ignored. It is the side we must consider first if all things are to be properly related to God as the Center. When the work of the church is man-centered – starting with man, centered in his needs, conscious of his welfare, and seeking his blessing – we have the wrong center of gravity. However much God has done for man and in him, man is still out of proper orbit until his deepest and most basic need has been met. This greatest of all man’s needs is an ultimate rectification from himself as the center unto God as the center.”

If there is truly going to be a spiritual Revolution in Florida, or any place else for that matter, it is imperative for those of us who aspire to be Revolutionaries to reset our center. We must move from being man-centered/self-centered to being God centered! From Anthropocentric to Theocentric! That is God’s design and nothing else will work.

“For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. [For all things originate with Him and come from Him; all things center in and tend to consummate and to end in Him] To Him be glory forever! Amen! (Romans 11:36 AMP)

DaveinFL

God’s Plan for Man

DaveinFL — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 16:47:58 +0000

My wife Jennie and I just finished a couple of weeks traveling by auto up to Missouri to visit with my brother-in-law, Finley, then on up to Nebraska to spend a couple of days with a fellow ministry couple, Jack and Jan, then to Kansas to spend some time with our son David, his wife Melanie, and our four year old grandson, Phillip, for Thanksgiving, then to South Carolina to spend time with our daughter, Cheri, Jim her husband, and our grand children, Sarah, Aaron, Lydia and Naomi, and finally to attend a Board Meeting for the Vine Institute. We were received graciously in each place and I could not help but to think that Father was at the very center of every encounter with Family and Friends! What a delightful time of abiding! We even sensed His presence in the hours of driving through the beautiful countryside and marveling at the small towns inhabited by His creation. We were in no great hurry so we took the old roads when possible, avoiding the hustle and bustle of the Interstates. Everywhere we went it seemed His favor and love was being poured out on us and shed abroad in our hearts. What a sense of belonging!

Enough about our trip. In January of 1987, I read a book by DeVerne Fromke, entitled, THE ULTIMATE INTENTION. In it he weaves the theme of God’s plan for man which centers ultimately on God’s desire for a FAMILY. I will share with you some from Fromke’s book in the future, however, today I just wanted you to know that I am at peace and at rest in the Father as a part of His family, a part of God’s Plan for Man.

Peace in Christ!

DaveinFL

Further Explanation

DaveinFL — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:41:51 +0000

I mentioned briefly in my Blog of November 22, that I had repented of having been a “professional clergyman.” Some readers cheered and some challenged that statement. Perhaps I was too brief and general in dealing with a very delicate subject in the religious practices of the “Churches” in America. To those who felt threatened by what I wrote please allow me to respond to some questions raised.

First, regarding the questions on financial support, I did not say that “pastors and staff” should not be paid. There is scriptural evidence for the practice of faithful elders and servants of the ekklesia receiving financial support for their service to the flock of God.

Secondly, I would hasten to add that there is a vast difference between a faithful elder and a clergyman. The faithful elder appears in the scriptures to be one who is spiritually mature and able to serve as an undershepherd of his Master’s flock. He is not into shepherding for personal gain. He is not in competition with other shepherds. He comes from among the flock, not from an educational system designed to produce professionals that promulgate the system. He understands that he is accountable for his actions regarding God’s flock and does not see his service as a stepping stone to a larger flock with more income, greater benefits, a reputation as a great preacher, builder of churches or as an opportunity to become a Church/ Denominational Executive. His center is God, not self or man.

Thirdly, the clergy/laity class system seems to be a direct contradiction of the Kingdom message of Jesus in the gospels and the New Covenant. For those who may be interested I can give you the titles of some very well done books and treatises on the subject of the clergy by very scholarly men.

A brief request.

I invite you to go to www.flrev.org , click on the link to the BLOG, and post your comments. I will listen to your phone calls and read your emails when they are sent to me and attempt to respond as best as I can. However, I can’t record your conversations and cut and paste them on the site for the benefit of others. Please help.

DaveinFL

Stop reparing what I am replacing – Nov 22

DaveinFL — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 11:02:16 +0000

I guess I like many of my generation, am prone to be a product of our times. Growing up many of us were required to pinch pennies all the time. Repairing something was always seen as being better than replacing something. That rubbed off into the way I conducted myself as a pastor during 32 plus years of “professional ministry.” I found myself trying to repair the religious system, church members, my family and even casual acquaintances. God wasn’t pleased with Dave the Repairman’s efforts to accomplish in the flesh what could only be accomplished by a God ordered death. When the old dies it can be replaced with the new. (May I add that I have repented of the concept and practice of being a professional clergyman in as much as it doesn’t appear to be a biblical approach in stewarding one’s leadership gift freely given by God. It has not been without some costs.)

I have often prayed for the blood of Jesus to cleanse and make my heart pure, to heal my deceitful heart. This is one of the things that I tried to have fixed or repaired. However, I discovered in the book of Ezekiel that God had a different plan. One that most Christians I know overlook. “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you” (Ezekiel 36:26). Isn’t that profound? God’s plan is not to repair our old “deceitful heart” (Jer. 17:9) but to replace it with a brand new heart.

May I ask you, “Why do you attempt to fix or repair what God wants to, and is replacing?”

You may want to ask God to give you the new heart that He has promised and replace the one that was broken. With the new heart comes a deeper understanding of His ways. That is so much better!

DaveinFL