Khaw-yah

I've spent the better part of the morning seeking the Lord for Spring Creek. Not just the church but also the community. I asked God to share His heart with me so I could feel about the church and community the way He does.

I sat quietly before Him listening for His still small voice. An English word came to my mind but somehow I knew that was not the word He wanted to put into my heart. I looked up a verse with the word in it and then looked up that word up in the Hebrew language. Khaw-yah is what I found.

Unless you are a Hebrew scholar that word probably means nothing to you as it did to me earlier today. Just a weird Hebrew word. And yet that is the word the Lord put in my heart for all of Spring Creek. Khaw-yah means to quicken, live, revive. 

There are things that appear alive but are either dead or in the process of dying. Recently my boys and I helped some other men cut down a massive tree that fell on a widow's roof. Yet inside the tree was hollow. There was just an outer shell of bark and a thin layer of wood holding it together. You would have never known that just by looking at the outside.

So it is with many Jesus followers and churches. They appear alive but inside they are hollow. There is no life. They are cut off from the needed nutrients of the roots. Such people and churches need Khaw-yah. I saw Khaw-yah yesterday.

My family planned to join the church yesterday morning which we did. What made it more exciting is two other couples joined yesterday as well. One person commented it had been a long time since anyone had joined the church. I saw several misty eyes. I certainly didn't do that. I didn't make it happen. I just preached the message God laid on my heart and He used it. He brought Khaw-yah. I hope and pray He brings more.

While many churches hold weekly worship rituals there is not a lot of Khaw-yah in it. There is no life in it. God has not breathed life and quickened the elements of worship through His Spirit. God through His Spirit can do more in one service than we can do in years of trying to do it on our own. May His people wake up and cry out for Khaw-yah while there is still time.

Potential Powder Keg

Things seem about to explode in the United States. Everywhere you look there is crisis. The racial divide appears at an all time high in my lifetime. Any day it seems it could revert back to the race riots and segregation of the sixties and seventies. People are angry on both sides. The racial divides are being drawn in the sand and nobody is budging. Fingers are pointed and rhetoric is espoused.

The anger has already spilled over into violence on local levels. It all feels like a boiling cauldron of hate about to bubble over. People are hated and judged just because of the color of their skin. Behind the scenes radicals are fanning the flames of hatred to a feverish pitch. How long before the powder keg blows and violence and bloodshed fills the streets.

Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream. A dream for racial equality he championed and ultimately died for. It seems we are further from that dream now than ever. People are still judged by the color of their skin and not the content of their character. I don't understand.

My best friend in 5th grade was a black guy named Dennis. We spent time in each other's homes. One of my childhood football teammates,  and my best friend on the team, was a black guy named Jerome. He was the quarterback all the way through high school and I loved blocking for him. I loved him. Two other black guys came and ate dinner in my house named Antonio and Jerry. I was also friends with James.In addition, I worked on the newspaper staff with a black guy named Dwayne. All African American. We had several classes together and spent time hanging together outside of school.

Those guys were my friends. The color of our skin did not matter. We were just people. Jesus loves people of all skin color. His family is big enough to include all shades of skin. My wife is part hispanic but I never saw that. I only saw her heart and her beauty. Outwardly and inwardly. She loved and still loves Jesus. Eventually she loved me too. That was enough.

As Jesus followers we are supposed to love people. I realize some minorities have been mistreated and they carry resentment and anger. I wish slavery and civil injustice and segregation never happened. They did. I wish the Native Americans were not lied to and mistreated. I wish Hispanics were valued for their strong family values and work ethics instead of being called names. All of those negative things did  and do happen. As followers of Jesus we are supposed to love and forgive. It's that simple.

In a culture of love and forgiveness hatred could deescalate. Tempers could calm. Forgiveness could supplant bitterness. Hugs and handshakes could replace guns and knives. The gospel could transform one life after another. Maybe that sounds like a fairy tale. It sounds like revival to me and I will devote my life, prayers and passion to seeing that reality. May this potential powder keg never explode because God calls this nation to repentance and salvation in a massive spiritual awakening.