Vacation Update

I know you haven't heard from me in a while but I am on vacation with my family in Ohio. In this time I set aside this week to sow back into the kingdom and spend some of my time as a counselor at the youth camp I have been going to since I was a freshman in high school - that's 12 years. I am blown away the campers are so awesome and have grown so much in the last 3 days that I almost don't have the words to describe what is happening but I will give it a shot. 

The Lord is moving so strongly I have never seen anything like it before. To put it in measurable terms, out of the 69 campers this year we are going to baptize 33 on Friday afternoon. That is more kids baptized in a single day than ever in the history of this camp. God is preparing the young people of this world for both the revival and trials to come. 

I see so clearly how we do not have a corner or monopoly on the Holy Spirit. He is doing His good work in young people everywhere and it means we are not alone in the world and in what the Lord is doing amongst us. Be encouraged and do not feel isolated or alone. The young persons reformation is everywhere and I am so excited to see where the Lord is going to take my generation and the next one. 

Blessings

Aaron Ayers

Brace Yourself.

"I was baptized by water since I started coming here, and I was baptized in the Spirit by fire. "

David Bracewell has been an excellent living example of repentance and renewal in the 9 months we've known and loved him. He's a young man of great knowledge and humor, a walking epistle written of Jesus. Since his invite to Young Adults from fellow freedom rangers at Lonestar College, David has become actively planted at Freedom Fellowship in both fellowship and servanthood. We're big fans of Sir David, and love learning and benefitting from his joyful commitment to life in Christ. Party on, David. Party on.

Know the State of Your Soil

In Mark 4, Jesus teaches a parable identifying different types of soil in which seed is sown to successfully or unsuccessfully bear fruit. With the soil representing our hearts or spirits, and the seed as God's Word, the desire sprung in me to see how I a receiving the Word. Is my heart humble and teachable, or am I hard hearted and prideful in my knowledge of God? It is so easy for me to hear a message on grace and tune it out, thinking "Yeah, yeah, yeah been there heard that sermon, get to some deep teaching I don't know." Maybe it's just me, but I find myself in that boat of thinking. Usually, almost immediately, the Holy Spirit brings correction to my prideful, unteachable attitude.
Know the state of your soil. Prepare your heart to receive by clothing yourself in humility and teachability. Prepare your soil for the Word, that the Lord may sow into you that which will produce fruit. I want to be fruitful soil, so it's important to me to check my heart when receiving the Word that it may take root and bear much fruit in my life. It's not always what we do, sometimes it's simply how we do it.


Post by John Fritzsching

Walk The Line

I heard the most profound and simple statement a few years ago that is proving itself more and more in depth and application, "balance is the key to life". Recently in my walk with the Lord, an awareness of the necessity for balance has been continually at the forefront of my mind. We need balance in a number of areas, mental, physical, relational, and circumstantial.
So what is balance? Websters dictionary describes balance as "An even distribution of weight enabling someone or something to remain upright and steady." So its safe to say that in order to have balance, something must be "balanced" in two or more equal parts. This could be multiple things, or one thing. The key here is equality.
This couldn't be more true in our walk with Jesus. So often I hear fellow believers teach, preach, and live one side of a two sided truth. I find I am constantly weighing in heavy on one side and light on another. The Word of God is full of two sided, or two dimensional, even multidimensional understanding. Unfortunately, for most of the body of Christ, these dimensions are not recognized, instead, one is heavily favored and the other dismissed or even criticized.
Balance is also mistaken for mediocrity or lukewarmness, as if to strike out adamantly and with full force on one point is more profitable than total understanding, which may take time and more of ourselves. 
This is weighing heavily on my heart, as I see the generations ahead of me that have never learned what it means to know God fully, and I am apart of a generation that is only going to follow in those footsteps unless there is change. And all this being said, I know this is broad and applicable in a number of areas so I will make it more specific.
In my own life I have been experiencing an increasing pressure that seems to be everywhere like a heavy blanket over my life. The Lord has shown me that this feeling has come over time, creeping in and sticking around. Stressful in nature. So in the recesses of my mind I go to the Lord about this often, but lately its been too much to bare. I began to ask God, "What is this?" "What's missing, what's the problem?"And the Lord led me to Romans the seventh chapter. In the second half of the chapter Paul describes a reality of life that many of us live, a waring between our inner man and the flesh. Paul says that in the midst of this battle he has become "...a prisoner to the law of sin which is in my members". Instantly I can identify with this, and while this doesn't offer a solution, it is comforting to know that Lord knows every circumstance.  As I read on, I felt as if I could feel every bit of Paul's journey. And then in the 13th verse of chapter 8 he makes a statement that filled me like a man who's  lost in the wilderness and suddenly finds a compass. Paul writes "..but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. And just like a curtain being pulled back from a huge window, I began to see and realize just how unbalanced my life had become. This one verse can provoke a myriad of other questions, but what the Lord was showing me was how much I had taken myself out of the responsibility, or the partnership that I have made with Jesus. The power of the blood of Jesus does break every chain and every bondage, and nothing can separate us from the love of God, but He also asks us to put to death all the things that are not of him, and to walk in His love. Jesus said "If you love me, you will keep my commandments". The Fear of the Lord is a healthy fear. The truthful understanding of our position with Christ in this journey that we are on is absolutely vital. He has provided us with all that we need if we take the time to learn through loving Him. It is through His precious Word and Spirit that he leads us, speaks to us, guides us, councils us, and loves us.

Romans 8:16 " The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

Post by Rob Reilly

Ring Around the Mountain

In the journey of life I find myself all too often assessing and obsessing about truths and knowledge of the truth, continuously trying to take the next step back and make that final "What does it all mean?" statement...believing that some "big bang" revelation is going to drop on me like a grand piano.
Man, what an exhausting way to live....I think "If I could just get it!", " The next time..!!" and so on.  I have realized that the tension that I feel in this is not what I had supposed. The idea that one day I'm gonna have enough, be enough, know enough, be strong enough to climb that impossible hill; exhausting all my efforts, but finally making it to the top to see, realize, arrive at.. the end.... it isn't true.  I can never get their. I can't ever see the whole thing.
When I was little we used to sing that song "she'll be coming around that mountain when she come's". As a little boy full of imagination and hours of epics like Zorro, The Last of the Mohicans, and Batman, I always pictured "she" as a ferocious caped crusader, side-winding around a narrow cliffs edge, with hair blowing and face full of intensity, the crack-peel of thunder as "she" snaps the whip on the horse's backside and pics up even more speed and turbulence (kids have the most fun).
This imagery is all too familiar to me. I think we can go through life living like this, going around and around the magnanimous mystery believing we just might be able to see or understand the whole thing, the elusive "Big Picture". The painful truth is that we cannot.
But to deny the innate desire in all of us to know, realize, and arrive is to deny our own divine existence. God has sown us together with this fabric and has every intention  to fulfill the deepest longings of the heart; even the un-named formless beacons of hopeful desire that lie within us.
"So, if not for all of this, then what? How?" is what I ask moment by moment.
"The answer," God says with a warm secure look is "Who".

YAHWEH, GOD in all of His Magnificence, in His indescribable Omnipotence,  Magnitude, and Glory made the most incredible design. The way to Him is through Him. It's in the fragility of a relationship, one on one. Nothing else. The thought of this is immediately overwhelming, because of the simple reality that I myself am a terrific failure. God however is not. We would almost choose death by exhausting every other avenue than turn and face our Maker who is a man, who is God, and gentle, full of every good thing. Whose eyes burn with the most intense love, and whose face radiates with every answer for every longing we have in our created frame. There is no way to dissect it, categorize it, or call it something it isn't. We are to know Him, we are to talk to Him, walk with Him, cry with Him, live with Him, love with Him...be with Him.
Oh, to know the love of Christ....

So if you are the least bit weary from all the running, all the trying and reaching... turn and face Him. Let  Him take you by the hand and lead you into destiny.

Romans 8:39 -"...nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord".

The Upside Down Kingdom

I have a friend who always speaks of the Kingdom of Heaven as the Upside Down Kingdom, and I think of it often.

The king was murdered.
The persecuted are blessed.
The first shall be last. 
The last shall be first. 
Those who die live.
To give is to gain.
Humility is strength.
The Kingdom belongs to children.
The Kingdom is ruled by servants.

Our walk as a believer of Christ will never follow logic, value or priority as we are naturally inclined. The values of heaven appear as downgrades to our world of self sufficiency and material reward, but I pray for a steadfast spirit within us all to seek the ways and eternal treasures of Christ. Let us have uncompromised trust in letting Him continually reorder us. These unexpected values - this Upside Down Kingdom - is our rightful pursuit and scale of appraisal for every avenue of life. Let us trust the LORD - His character, His leadership, His values - with all of our hearts, and lean not on our own understanding.