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 About 20 years ago while teaching in Taiwan I was reading a book, the title of which is lost in my remembrance, but the theme was about recognizing patterns of repeated actions.  I believe what caught my attention was a statement to the effect, “if you see something repeated two or three times in scripture, pay close attention.”  At the time I was preparing a teaching on the Day of Pentecost Coming of the Holy Spirit.  Back then. I would often rework my teaching material over and over again working on the felt-logic for an application in the context I was teaching.  Actually, that is a great practice, and it finally leads to internalizing one’s content to be much more sparked by the Spirit-in-the-moment.  The following excerpt is a short study in what I would call the Four-Fold Pattern of Kingdom Ways. Early in the morning on the Day of Pentecost, one of the major Jewish festivals, the coming of the Holy Spirit is both dramatic (the sound of mighty rushi...
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Thoughts on the Grace of God, Re-mixed

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A number of years ago someone mentioned to me that I had a grace-based approach to ministry. I took that as a sincere compliment only to find out later that the intent was more a criticism than praise. My critic's perception was that I was “too soft on sin” and consequently, the sinner had no fear of the Lord and lived out their own-way-ness (pride) in an unchecked manner. I understand the problem. Recently, I had someone very close to me apologize for some very ungodly actions and attitudes. What would I do? Would I forgive unreservedly as Christ has done for me, or would I let the person squirm a bit as I “contemplated” my response. I ended up forgiving and pronouncing blessing, but I did walk away with the sense that justice had not been done. (At least from my perspective). Especially, since the sin-in-question was willful and repeated over a long period of time. How would my forgiveness affect any real change? Or is it my for...
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Faith-Support

What Do You Mean When You Say You Live By “Faith-Support”? Over the years one of the issues that keeps on reoccurring with most of our family, friends, and even our supporting churches is the question of what it means to live by “faith support”. My father-in-law has never been able to figure this out. Recently, he asked me again when I would get a “real job”? Of course he means a job that pays a set hourly wage and is much more predictable in terms of income. It doesn’t communicate at all for me to say I do work on the average 50 hours a week on Youth With A Mission related issues. And when I explain that YWAM doesn’t pay me to do this, but in effect I pay myself to do it, my very real job with very real challenges seems all the more incomprehensible. So, how did this system come about? And is it working for us? The faith-support mission system is a product from the era of missions called the modern missions movement (less than 200 ...
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