Tonight has been a rather somber evening in my neighborhood of (the usually very quiet) Greenacres. It seems as though the Jeep that killed the local boy, 14-year-old Rick Gomez, was found at a house of a young couple who lives across the street from me. Rick Gomez was struck this last weekend about a half mile away from our neighborhood, right down the street. He was killed by the collision and the Jeep fled the scene. The couple who own the jeep, are in their mid twenties and actually have children of their own. I pray for both of these families but especially for the Gomez family. May their son and brother be greeted by God in paradise.

I took a few photos tonight and spoke with some of my neighbors and news crews. This event is quiet shocking to us all.

11 Comments
News, Prayer

Faith. Most people view faith as some religious expression, like going to church or praying, but just because you do those things doesn’t mean you have faith. Faith is substance. Faith is hope. Faith is evidence of the unseen. One writer of the New Testament said show me your faith without your works and I will show you faith by my works. Works can’t generate faith but be certain, faith will generate action.

Lights camera ACTION. Faith. Faith is powerful. Matter of fact, faith attracts God like honey attracts flies. Like water attracts the thirsty. God loves faith and He can’t resist it. God loves us and when we exert faith, God will show up. Where there is faith the impossible is only a whisper away.

Last year my brother was diagnosed with Chordomas. A rare but a very deadly form of cancer. The doctors had given little hope, trying to be helpful I’m sure, but it was painful to watch. His wife had lost her mom a year before and now this, their baby was only months old. I spoke with my brother and said something like this, “Look, the doctors are smart but don’t believe a word they say. You have nothing to lose just have faith in God and pray for a miracle.” Now, I know, when people read “have faith in God”, they read, “forget medical treatment” but that isn’t so. If you have nothing to lose might as well go down swinging. He did. He believed God could heal him and cause the prognoses to be wrong. The doctors scheduled a very risky surgery to remove this tumor from his spine. They said it was bigger than my fist and it could leave my brother paralyzed. My friends prayed. My family prayed. I prayed. The surgery was supposed to last six hours. An hour and a half he was out. The tumor had shrunk to the size of a prune, it wasn’t Chordomas, it wasn’t even cancer. Just a tumor. Faith is the evidence before the unseen was even known. My nephew still has a great daddy, a wife still has a husband, and I still have a role model.

Two months ago a lady in my local church came for prayer. She had been diagnosed with Hep C. She was depressed and realized that her lifestyle had brought on this disease. Years of drugs and abuse to her body. A simple prayer of faith that night reversed her disease. She was going for treatment the next week and when she got to treatment her blood count was reversed. The hope was out of reach but God had saved her and that is a miracle of the soul, God had healed her a miracle of the body.

Three weeks ago the mother of a good friend of mine came for prayer. She had a tumor on her lungs. Her Grandmother and her Mom died of cancer of the lugs and so hope wasn’t in abundance. I still recall the electricity in the air that night. The doctors said it was a solid mass on her lungs and she was going in for surgery two days later. After the church prayed no light or voices from heaven, just a simple belief that God was going to do what needed to be done. When the report came to me I was about to teach a class. The doctors said when they went in to do the biopsy. The tumor popped and vanished like it was filled with air. They told her that they had no explanation of what happened, only, you do not have cancer!

Now granted I may need God’s divine hand to heal me oneday, what happens if he didn’t? I can only say that faith attracts God and if he so decides to answer the request that we make. Then praise God. Job was faced with a terrible circumstance. He lost everything but he said, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him…” The real miracle is being close to him. Trust is found in deep relationships. Trust is the bedrock and has faith as its foundation. Never gage someone by their circumstance. Never gage God’s love with what is happening, you may be next, have faith in God. Simple, satisfying, and powerful faith in Jesus Christ.

18 Comments
General, Prayer, Religion

Last night there was a terrible accident on the Pend Oreille River. Jordan Mason was being pulled on a inner-tube by a boat and was struck by another boat. His little life jacket was all they could find. The search is still on but they have called off the helicopters. My best friend’s son was one of Jordan’s best buds. They did Awana together, they wrestled together, and they played together.

Jordan’s father Tim Mason is an incredible man. I have often thought of asking him to be a contributing author here at 3G. Like many of us here, he is a Right-wing, God fearing, Patriot. He is also a pastor at Fourth Memorial Church here in Spokane. He runs the Riverview Bible Camp up there in the summer. Please pray for the Masons. Pray that God will create a miracle. Also keep the 17 year-old girl who was also hurt in your prayers as well.

KXLY News- Update

13 Comments
News, Prayer

It can seem almost self serving to call the prayer mine. It is uttered out of my lips and only belongs to me when my heart is filled with doubt or pride. It is in letting go of the ownership that prayer really takes flight. The subject of prayer is a pious subject and is spoken about by every religious leader, pastor, and pew dweller. It is a subject, that if spoken creatively, can earn a simple teacher high remarks, happy handshakes, and pats on the back from the congregation. Who knows a book deal could be in the future? Religious people always enjoy talking about prayer, they even make prayer requests and even say, “I will pray for you.” Truth be known it is only lip service. Just look around here, smack dab in the middle of the Bible-belt and we are still suffering from a lack of true revival.

I think prayer is an art that is only learned by doing. Prayer isn’t in “much speaking” but in much seeking. Many times when I pray I pause for a period of contemplation to get my heart into the seeking mode. I have made the mistake and came blasting into prayer with words spraying, like a machine gun and without thought into the air, at the ceiling, at God. Hoping the right combination of words and concentration would get God’s attention and maybe even an answer. How wrong I was.

Teachers of prayer mean well, they really do. It sells books, it makes them feel “spiritual” and when they study to find methods for successful prayer they feel more authoritative. Jesus spent less time teaching it and more time doing it. The Lord’s prayer is just a simple example of “how to” and he gave a live real world example. Now, Jesus, being Emmanuel (God with us.) could have given us bullet points of powerful prayer on the blackboard of the night sky. He didn’t, only examples. Prayer isn’t easy, just look at Gethsemane, it has difficulties that help us cut the fluff out and get to the heart. That’s what God wants. He wants us to pray. To many times I sling my list of “needs” at heaven before I even communion with the King.

Before I married my wife I would call her just to hear her voice. The emotion would flood my heart and I would express my love for her. We were two hours from each other. It was awful. I was happy to pay large phone bills just to hear her. To ask her about any to do list was the last thing I cared about. When we are in love with Jesus we will pray just to be close to Him and the list will fade.

A foundational scripture is the following:

2Ch 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Definition: Humility- the act of being humble. Humble: 1. Marked by meekness or modesty in behavior, attitude, or spirit; not arrogant or prideful. 2. Showing deferential or submissive respect: a humble apology. 3. Low in rank, quality, or station; unpretentious or lowly: a humble cottage.

Prayer doesn’t change “things”, God does. If you pray to an idol will things change? Prayer to God changes us but God changes “things” including us, if He so desires. If II Chronicles 7:14 had said, “If my people would pray then their land would be healed.” Then you could say that prayer changes “things”. It says, in my words, “If my people who are called by my name would humble themselves and repent (change) and forsake their pathetic behavior, then heaven will answer your honest request and I will forget about your sins and will heal your land.” We all want to hear from heaven. Well this is how.

Alert Soapbox has been spotted

I am tired of hearing the religious reasons why we are not seeing widespread revival. It sickens, not only me, but many other people who hunger for heaven’s silence to end. You can argue that things are happening but I ask you, on a national scale, nothing has changed. We need an answer from heaven to earth’s woes. Not only to “earth” but to my personal world. When everything around you is falling apart it isn’t time to stop praying. God may be just shaking your world because you haven’t shaken your heart. We need to humbly seek His face and shake our hearts – heaven will answer.

* Steps off soapbox *

When prayer becomes a duty instead of a relationship – we've lost a powerful tool. Seeking His face is a relationship.

7 Comments
Prayer, Religion