I was blind but now I see.  John Newton – Amazing Grace

A good friend of mine, Gary Barkalow, teaches hearts how to discern life. He has been touched by God with this special gift and like most talents or gifts has honed his abilities over time and by staying close to God. I have attended many of his conferences and had the opportunity to partner with him and share with others what I am discovering about how to see. There are three major lanes in which Gary teaches a person to take inventory and the same three lanes he invites hearts to explore in order to forecast the road ahead: Journey, Story and Desire.

Journey, where have you been and where are you going?

Story, what are the elements and environments surrounding your life, what kind of story do you live in (or think you live in) for this will greatly determine how you live?

Desire, what is it you want, long for, hope for…what makes you come alive?

Cal Ripken Jr., the hall of fame shortstop from the Baltimore Orioles, was trained to hit baseballs that had numbers on them.  The skill to learn was simple, see the ball… hit the ball, and so it is with discerning a life and discerning in life.  The questions for discernment begins with, can you see and then, what do you see? Speed is the key.  Can you slow down the things that are moving rapidly at you? Slow them down enough to really see them?  See the fast pace of life in slow motion.

My friend Gary teaches, You’ve got to collect the dots before you can connect the dots. As I tried to share, or rather confess, in the book, Search and Rescue, I have misunderstood, misclassified, misjudged and mishandled much of my life.  The key word there is miss… missed, as in swing and a miss.

Now here is the wild thing. The more I walk with God and He develops this skill in my life, the more I see… the more I see Him. I’m ready to conclude and offer that I believe God moves at a snails pace and invites me to do the same. He invites me to be a tourist of life, moving slowly, taking it in, pulling up a camera to frame another shot for the scrapbook. The Great I Am is a present tense God, in the present moment and there are hundreds of moments in a day. Nothing wrong with looking back, as a matter of fact, observing ones past is a key to re-filing much of life, having many moments redeemed by Christ and seeing God do His restorative thing in my life because as you know, in order to look back you have to be still, slow it down and reflect…looking for what you missed the first time around. Can you see? What do you see?

What if you could take that skill of looking back and make it apply to present moments? Would you? What I should’ve said or done or how I wished I had reacted or responded is worth the time to come to newfound conclusions but the real invitation is for me to practice that skill in the present. And oh boy are there lots of moments I need to be in the present, slowing things down and asking God questions as I observe my life and the lives around me. It’s tough to hit what you can’t see. Sure you might get lucky by just swinging away, but that will never get you in the hall of fame. See the moment, hear the moment, be in the moment… that is where God is, the great I AM… He is in the moment and invites us to be there with Him.  It’s a glorious place to be.

You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right.  Then you can see God in the outside world.  Jesus- Matthew 5:8 (MSG)

Dear Friends and Allies,

Wrecked and Ruined, not words often associated with a weekend conference… not unless it went badly. Not true! These were the words spoken by men who encountered Jesus this past weekend at TOP GUN. To report it was amazing, incredible or significant might be selling it short. We witnessed first hand, God come fiercely and tenderly for man after man. We believe all 250+ men encountered the weight and significance of the Spiritual Realm and the one who loves them deeply. Jesus came fiercely against the chains that had bound men for years and tenderly for their hearts, to redeem and restore them. It was stunning, extravagant and beautiful in so, so many ways. The stories keep coming in and are overwhelming. It seems God chose to be unsecretive throughout the weekend and made His presence known and felt again and again in the hearts of individual men.

God has rekindled the intimacy I thought I’d never get back. It has been a tender and warm reunion with Him. He met me where I was and gently led me out of the woods… – Steven

This has been a great weekend/start for a guy who didn’t know who he was, where he was going and what God was doing… the enemy has left me alone because I was so disoriented and didn’t realize it. – Joe

This is the beginning of the best time of my life and I say this with 59 years behind me… I am finding/seeing new Life coming to dry bones. – Carlos

…but I think the most important thing this weekend for my life has been the connecting I’ve done with men who share magnificent common traits with my soul… its been great for my faith and my foundation as a man. – Rick

I don’t know how to describe it. God showed me I am only living from ½ my heart… He showed me the gifts He has given me to love with all my heart… Thank you. – Jim

The reports and impact, emails and texts go on and on, declarations of the Kingdom Life. Our TOP GUN conference team did an incredible job fighting for the hearts of these men and I would ask you to pray for our team as well as all the men as the walk into re-entry on their home fronts… a challenging and difficult thing to do in many respects.

Join us in thanking Jesus for the rescues, redemption, restoration and freedom experienced this past weekend and in the days ahead. It was Dwight D. Eisenhower who once said, History does not long entrust freedom to the week and timid. Paul wrote to Timothy, We are not given a spirit of timidity, but of power, of love and of self-discipline (2 Timothy 1:7). Thank you for fighting along side of us for the Freedom and Life of Jesus by praying and supporting the advancing of His Kingdom through Zoweh, our small part in His Larger Story, the story God is telling and authoring and that we are all privileged to have a grand and glorious part!

For the Freedom and Life,

Michael and Robin
and the TOP GUN Conference Team

We all have a story to tell, we all live in a story…we all are a story!

So much of life seems to be about where you are and who you’re with. When you think back to significant moments in your life or you invite someone to tell a story from their life, you often prompt them with…

Grandpa, tell us about the time you and your platoon…

Mom, do you remember when I was 11 and we went to…

Dad, tell them the one about you, your brothers and those firecrackers.

Life is very much about stories…stories that always tell of relationships and environments.  Try to tell a story without these crucial elements. The collection of these stories in our lives has made up much of who we are and what we believe.

How do you unpack them?
Where do your stories take you?
Where is God in all your relationships and experiences?

I invite you to get away, unplug, unpack the stories of your life in a place that is safe and where you can meet with God. That is what happens over and over in the Bible, regular folks encountering an incredible God and they are never the same.

I believe we are all living in a much Larger Story, and as Brent Curtis wrote in The Sacred Romance, it is best described as the Great Love Story set in the midst of a Great Battle.

What kind of story are you living in?  If you are the center of that story… you’re living in much too small a story.  I invite you get away with God for a time and a place where you can find your bearings, better understand who you are, where you are and know with more clarity what the good He, the God of the universe, is up to in the story that is your life and the much Larger Story He is authoring and unfolding all around you.

Wow. Is it me, or does it feel like the New Year hit like a hurricane?  I think that is the beauty of the break – we walk away from all the to-do lists for a short time and give our hearts to family and friends…loved ones.  Then, when we turn back to the chores, emails, projects and schedules, it all ramps up with gail forces and I often then wonder, what in the world have I been doing these past weeks?

Don’t be fooled by that ol’ voice – the enemy’s old “wasted time” trick. Hopefully you’ve been right where you needed to be – giving time to those you love.  And as you have, the enemy has been waiting – biding time – for the moment to sabotage your good heart with an attempt to give you a side order of guilt or accusation to kick off the New Year.  Tell the waiter, I’m not taking this!… Inform him, I’m not buyin’!

Jesus made us a huge offer when he announced, I came that you may have life and have it to the full (abundant)- John 10:10b.  First of all, may is a pretty important word. You know what it means: maybe, might, possibly… on a few conditions.  Second, in that first part of John 10:10 “a”, Jesus says, The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy but…  Now but is another important word and you know what but means: contrary to, instead of, in contrast.  The question then stands- if these are the options- a: Thief who steals and kills and destroys and b: Good Shepherd who gives Life…    who gets to make the choice?  We do!  So, how’s that going?

Are you aware of the little foxes that come to steal, kill and destroy your joy, your full life?  I dare say, if you aren’t aware of a choice, you can’t make it.

Some never enjoy the beauty of the break on the front end because the enemy has some of us so programmed to be busy, we cant enjoy the rest. Isn’t one of the very reasons we work so hard so that we are able to take a vacation, a break, and move intentionally toward family and friends?  Way too often I’m more wired in as the 8^th dwarf, Hi Ho, Hi Ho it’s off to work I go… all the time!

Do you know that voice of discontent you hear at your desk, Gosh, I wish I was on the golf course or at the spa.  Then, when you’re actually at the golf course or the spa, the tune changes to, Gee, I really should be at work, soo much to do.  Agree with either of them (that’s your choice) and the moment is soured.  Others of us, the beauty of the break is arrested in the midst of the break.  Christmas or New Years or any time away with family is infiltrated by moments of inconvenience or “hassle” or a sudden storm of unmet expectations rolls in.  Bring a group of people together, especially family, and the thief feels more like thieves, a highly organized cartel of rustlers determined to steal the herd or at least the joy from the herd.

If the thieves can’t get you going into your break or during it then, you guessed it, they’ll try to pickpocket you on the way out.  Knowing this can aid and equip us in making some really good choices.

Remember:  the power of a lie is that you don’t know it’s a lie and that you believe it!  Sort out the voices – these messages that come to your head and heart.  Throw away the junk mail of accusations, guilt, diminishment and fear.  Recognizing the good from the bad, the truth from the lie is critical.  Then you can make a crucial choice. Keep the good stuff.   The break it will give your heart will be beautiful!

Happy New Year!!!

I hope you had a wonderful Birthday celebration and received some wonderful gifts as well as enjoyed giving some gifts to the people that are pretty wonderful in your life.  My girls are now 13, 16 and 18… Abbey, Hannah and Ashley.  Each year they seem to get more and more into their giving of gifts (instead of getting heated about whose turn it is to open!).  This year the phrase was, “open this one from me.”  Their gifts were heartfelt and creative…loved that!

The definition for a great gift might be that it is enjoyed long after it is opened.  There have been a few gifts from Christmases past that just keep on giving.  I still use my iPod I received for Christmas five years ago almost every day.  The journal my family gave me last year just got its last entry for 2011.

There was a special gift God gave me for Christmas in 2010 that continued to bring a smile to my face every time I heard it play this year, even a tear of joy on one occasion.  Last year God gave me a song, one that I had heard growing up. It was actually a Christmas Carol… O Holy Night.  It was so tremendous how He did it, and I actually got to tell the story on the first Sunday in January of this past year.  Soooo, I thought maybe you might like to hear the story through a video that captured my excitement then, and I must say, continues to capture my heart even now… Like so many of His gifts, it was a gift that keeps on giving.

The story of God’s gift to me is the first 6 minutes of this video message.  Hope you enjoy.