Blazing Fire's Encouraging Blog

  “Happy are the peacemakers for they will be called God’s children.”  Matthew 5:9 The Source New Testament This past Saturday night, I had the joy of sharing two stories by Jamie and Donna Winship that beautifully illustrated many things - including peacemaking, suffering persecution for the sake of justice, and experiencing insults and all kinds of evil lies about you as you follow Jesus. (Matthew 5:9-11) You can find the whole service here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyRfuYL9KsM&t=6590s My talk starts at about 1 hr 23 min. Here are what I consider key peacemaking “ingredients”: Jesus is the Prince of Peace.  The “Sar Shalom”.  Jesus is the One whose reign is Shalom: Completeness, safety, soundness, welfare, health, and prosperity.  Jesus orchestrates the establishment of peace in situations of conflict - and He includes us in this beautiful, important work when we obey Him and surrender our fears, offenses and judgments. Focus on forgiving those who ...

  Paul encourages us in 1 Corinthians 14:26 that each one of us carries something vital and unique that helps “build up the church family”.  We saw this in action last Saturday night as the Holy Spirit moved in our midst through worship, testimony, teachings and prophetic revelations.  One of the resonating themes was that of our union in Christ as several people shared inspiring revelations of what Jesus had been showing them.  To be one with the God of all creation is a concept beyond what our minds can comprehend, but which our spirits welcome with open arms.  Our God, the source of all that is good, loving, and life-giving wants to be intimately in union with you in every moment of your life.  We are reassured in John 14:18 that “At no time will you be orphaned or abandoned by me; I come to abide face to face with you.” (The Mirror).  And that “face to face” promise is for always in every circumstance. If we really believe we are as one with Christ...

  I used to pray or sing about the Lord showing His glory. In a group setting, we would enthusiastically call upon the Lord to show His glory or sing that His glory filled the temple—with our arms raised, tears streaming down faces, people falling to their knees, lots of shaking and baking, and some doing the Pentecostal shuffle. Sometimes these events fell flat for me. I sat there completely disconnected, watching everyone else launch into the sky. But there was nothing wrong with me. I simply wanted to connect with the Lord, person to person, and eventually it became clearer to me how I could do that and have a true encounter with His heartfelt love. In Exodus 33:18–19, Moses asks the Lord to show him His glory. The Lord instead said His goodness would pass before him. That goodness was entirely relational, not flash and dazzle. His goodness was about compassion, mercy, forgiveness, patience, and restoration. It was a heart-to-heart connection, and we can all have that in deeper ...

I believe most of you reading this want God’s Spirit to surprise and even interrupt your daily routine. God can and does certainly do that on occasion but what He’s really after is for you to awaken to the blissful truth that His presence saturates every aspect and moment of your daily routine. Let me explain… I had a message all prepared leading up to last Saturday’s worship service for our Blazing Fire family. Apparently, God had other plans. At about 4:30 am last Saturday, somewhere in my deep sleep gratitude began bubbling up, first as a thought, then mouthed by my lips in a sleepy whisper…  “Thank you Holy Spirit that you have been poured out! You HAVE been. All has been done. Thank you!” At this point, I’m still mostly asleep, but a slight smile is forming and I think I’ll be going right back asleep. Instead, I woke up a bit more from this deep sleep when an old Vineyard song began running through my mind and then across my lips in a whisper:       ...

The beatitudes (blessings) Jesus shares in Matthew 5:3-11 were never meant to be a checklist of things you need to do to be right with God, nor requirements you need to fulfill to earn God’s blessings. See them, rather, as a portrait painted by Jesus of your most authentic self—your in-Christ, made in the image of your divine Creator self. In a way, Jesus is splashing cold water on our faces as if to say , “Wake up to your true self! The way I fashioned you is nothing like how the world wants to define you. I am reminding you of your original design in my divine image which will open you up to the joy your heart has been longing for.” This is how you will experience the blessed journey of life. Your life is a unique song that was meant to be sung in this world. Jesus is the only one who can sing it to you until you can hear it clearly for yourself and sing it out with childlike joy and confidence. Here is a paraphrase I wrote of the beatitudes, along with us being light and salt in th...

  Thank you so much for your generous donations and help serving the community at our Back to School outreach last Saturday! We had over 150 children and teenagers from Pleasanton, Dublin, San Ramon, Livermore, Oakland and Hayward. I met a single Mom who is currently living between her car and a hotel.  As we prayed for her, Jesus began to fill her with hope like only he can that her situation would change. While some parents shared their hearts, children got their face painted, received haircuts, did art projects and played games. What I heard the most from families was how over the top kind and loving everyone was that helped them. There was such a feeling of gratitude and joy in the room. Whenever we do these outreaches, I often look around the room and think "this is church." So often we think a typical service has to consist of a worship set and a message. But throughout the bible, the church is never defined by a service or a building. It's the people. You each shin...