Empowered

Torn

Vince Lotito — Mon, 28 May 2007 16:45:55 GMT

I am just so torn this morning… Yesterday, was Pentecost and I really felt such an awesome move of God’s Spirit as He ministered to me through the service. And I know that God’s Spirit touched others in the same way; however, I also sense that most missed the anointing… One of the sermon points the Holy Spirit spoke was directed at the mindset of consumerism that many of us possess today. Consumerism is so prevalent in our society that it has become a part the church culture… where many of us come to a Sunday morning service as if we are running some errand, where we look at the “utility” of the service, as expressed in terms of approval (or disapproval). Approval of the worship service, approval of the preaching, approval of the amount of time spent --- and invariably we loose sight of the Lord.

I was just so full of His Spirit that I wanted to remain in His presence… as my friend Charlie said; “I wanted to fall over and worship him.” I was not in the same place as the rest of folks, in their own way, they came over as the service ended, and wanted to congratulate us as for the “great job we did” (they approve), or wanted to talk about other nonsense and other business (onto the next errand)… I was useless, I couldn’t shift gears.. it was fellowship time, a time for the luncheon, a time for coffee, a time for cake… a time for chatting. But I had my meat, doing the Fathers work, I had my fellowship, in the presence of the Savior and I had my worship in the power of the Holy Spirit. The one direction that I was being led in, was to talk to this young couple who had been visiting the church, I sensed that I had to speak to them, and that they were longing… and I wanted to speak with them; however, the business of the moment was so disruptive, that it never manifested itself. It actually took me several hours to wind down yesterday.

And since my prayers have been prayers of mourning – I am thinking, yeah the Lord wants us to be in unity and of one accord… and sensed that people are, and they were, but not about the Father’s business. I am grieving because we are just busy with things, and I see that we are not about the Father’s business… if we’d just spend half as much time and energy on the Father’s business. I pray that we would be about the Father’s business. What is it going to take for us to press in? What is it going to take for us to forsake all else and to pray it through and seek Him and not stop until he blesses us? And then we wonder why we don’t see a mighty move of God’s Spirit… Lord Help Us!

The Intimation of Things…

Vince Lotito — Tue, 15 May 2007 14:42:53 GMT

Isn’t it funny how sometimes we get to know a person so well that we can understand what they are saying by how they “say” it? For instance, my wife invariably uses the word “thing” to describe any and all things – “get that thing”, “the thing over there”, “Hannah’s coming with the thing” and so on. And usually, I can understand her just by the way she intimates what she says in the word “thing.” Unless of course, I am like a typical guy who’s got his wife tuned out because of other important things (watching the Yankees, or news or the weather…) and all I process is the word thing. Sometimes it’s pretty comical, because I try to recall a sentence to see if I can understand what it is that she intimating in her use of the word “thing”… and when I can’t I say, in my married “what do you want now” tone of voice, what thing? And of course, this incites her, because even though she wasn’t clear in her actual words, she knows that if I had been listening to her in the first place, then I would have understood what it was that she was asking because of how she intimated “things.”

So it just goes to show, and it’ll show you once again… that it’s not what she says, it's how she says it, especially in the intimation of things…

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What is Free Will?

Vince Lotito — Fri, 11 May 2007 16:41:32 GMT

My friend Joan got me into a discussion regarding free will (as the answer to the problem of evil). In that discussion, I raised the question what is free will? What is free will in light of God’s foreknowledge and the fact that God has foreordained things…

Not to long ago I was watching a rerun of Law & Order on TNT, and the Executive D.A. Jack McCoy was negotiating a deal with a suspect in the typical Law & Order fashion, when he said don’t tell me that you believe that you can see the future… then that means you believe in predestination? Interesting thought… how could one know the future if it were not already determined before hand.

So does God’s foreknowledge eliminate human free will? Do the immutability of God and the omniscience of God put an end to human freedom? If our actions were not known in advance by God, then when He found them out, God would have a change in His knowledge… but that’s not possible because, God is omniscient and immutable.

If our actions are known by God in advance, then they will come to pass exactly as God knows them. So, if God knows that tomorrow I will do something then tomorrow I will do what God already knows, exactly as God knows it. So with God, my future behavior is absolutely certain. So does that mean that my future is absolutely determined or even coerced by God?

In our discussion, Joan said, that we are not puppets… the idea of God as a puppeteer. God pulling the strings as the feet and the arms of the puppets jerk and dance. No we are not puppets. Puppets have no will. They have no soul, no heart. Their bodies are filled with sawdust.

Conversely, God is not a spectator… that is, God is not sitting on the sidelines observing the action (so to speak). Where, he makes careful notes about the action, and as the ultimate spectator, He second guesses what’s happening next. The idea of a God as spectator renders God powerless to affect the outcome of the future -- that He is the God who reigns but never rules… He would be a God without authority, He wouldn’t be sovereign.

God foreordains all things and that all future events are under His sovereignty. The future is absolutely certain to God. He knows what will take place, and He foreordains what will take place. Does this mean that God coerces? No. It simply means that God wills that something take place. God may even will future events through the free choices of men. God can will the means as well as the ends of future events. God can even will good through the wicked choices of men.

For instance the crucifixion, the greatest event in history and at the same time it is the most diabolical. Think about it, Christ was hated by the Pharisees, they pressed for his death… Judas betrayed him. Pilate succumbed to mob. Did God coerce Judas? No, Judas betrayed Jesus because Judas wanted to betray him. Did God coerce the Pharisees or Pilate or the mob? No. But the cross was not an accident; the Bible says that is wasn’t. So then what? The outcome of God’s eternal place for redemption rested with Pilate, who could have released Christ and had Barabbas executed instead—relegating God to a spectator who merely hoped for the best and had no control over the events that surrounded the cross.

God did more than hope for the cross. God willed the cross. God sent His Son for that very purpose. Before Jesus was brought to Pilate, He pleaded with the Father for a different verdict. He begged that the cup might pass. And long before Pilate could do anything it was so, therefore, Jesus was delivered by the determinate forecounsel of God.

So then, what is free will? If God wills everything that is to come to pass, and God makes it come to pass, how can He do so without violating our free will?

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Mouse Or Man?

Vince Lotito — Thu, 10 May 2007 18:38:39 GMT

Rats...

I'll never forget the episodes of the Little Rascals, where Spanky is scared and ready to back out of some wile adventure and one of the other rascals calls him on it, and he asks... "What are we? Mice or Men" and in defeated and reluctant response, Spanky cries "Rats!"

Sounds a lot like what Hamas' Minister of Information Mustafa Barghouti is saying about now... after he found out that Al Aqsa executives are defying him. An Al Aqsa (Jerusalem) television executive said..."The program will continue and it will be broadcast tomorrow at 4.00 pm [1300 GMT]. Mustafa Barghouti misunderstood the issue," said the official on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press. You can read the rest of the story here...

So now what?

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M-i-c-k-e-y--M-o-u-s-e

Vince Lotito — Thu, 10 May 2007 15:22:18 GMT

They aren’t singing M-i-c-k-e-y—M-o-u-s-e, but rather singing about killing the Christians, Jews and the Pagans, and about dying and never surrendering… “Farfour” is his name and he is the latest creation from Hamas. Farfour is a dead ringer (no pun intended) for Mickey Mouse. Farfour’s purpose, to indoctrinate the kiddies into fighting Israel and to live and die for global Islamic domination. You can see excerpts here at:

The show preaches against the U.S. and Israel calling these children, “Tomorrow’s Pioneers.”

Farfour says:

“You and I are laying the foundation for a world led by Islamists...”

“We will return the Islamic community to its former greatness, and liberate Jerusalem, God willing, liberate Iraq, God willing, and liberate all the countries of the Muslims invaded by the murderers.”

“We will win Bush...”

“We will win Condoleezza...”

On the show we see children calling in to sing Hamas anthems about fighting wars, and killing the murderers… Perhaps the most disturbing is when we see Farfour rebuking a child caller who is advocating peace and surrender.

Hamas has taken the program off the air in order to “review” their “mistaken approach” (in dealing with the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation). But it is certainly deeper than that… Even with the program under review, it appears to me, anyway, that Hamas will do anything to keep it vows and follow through to ensure the destruction of it’s enemies...

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He Never Ceases to Amaze Me!

Vince Lotito — Mon, 07 May 2007 14:26:13 GMT

Incredible, absolutely incredible! I walked out of the Rose Garden yesterday totally blown away. For the last several weeks, I felt this tugging to have the folks share with us. So in our last meeting, I had asked them to think about their favorite Scripture, so they could perhaps share (with the rest of the group) a testimony about inspiration, encouragement, assurance or whatever.

Since then, I was wondering if any actually understood what it was that I was asking and if in fact there would be anybody prepared or willing to share Scripture and their testimony. On Saturday, I had intentions of asking Tom, one of the residents who joined us at the men’s breakfast, to remind everybody to prepare a verse. But better laid plans… as it turned out, I never mentioned that to Tom.

Yesterday we arrived at the Rose Garden early, and as I sat there waiting for the residents to arrive I was reading through Scripture… thinking be prepared in and out of season and see if I was being led to particular Scripture for a message or a word. I was led to Numbers 6:22… but didn’t feel compelled to speak on it… I was led to a few more, as the folks started to arrive.

As they came in I greeted them and as we chatted it soon became apparent, that they had understood very well and most had a Scripture prepared. Sherri and Mildred also greeted the folks and talked with them about what they had prepared and in doing so, discovered that Merriam, one of the residents, hadn’t prepared anything. This of course wasn’t too much of a surprise, because Merriam has not embraced Christ, and holds fast the cultural aspects of her Judaism. Although she is not a practicing Jew, she refuses the Gospel offer, but nevertheless, loves the fellowship and the music and was willing to have something from the Old Testament as her Scripture, that’s where Numbers 6:22 came in.

I was not prepared for what transpired… I was totally blown away… the folks read their Scriptures, shared their testimonies, one after the other. The most amazing part was that God was all over it. This was truly the fruit of our ministry. Sometimes we are so close to the people and the process that we cannot see the incremental changes that spell out transformation. The big changes are easy to see, Tom is the fruit of big change, but the others, and it’s not so obvious, well at least until yesterday, when I got a full dose of the transformation that has occurred in the lives of my friends. And I was totally blown away and I praise God alone for it.

You see, when we first started our ministry at the Rose Garden (some three years ago), the residents, seemed to be frustrated, angry, fearful and struggling… Yesterday it was obvious, they shared a common bond of friendship and love, they read their Bible’s, a few are reading it daily for the first time their lives…(which we learned only yesterday) they cling to Scripture and to God and have hope in Christ… maybe that is what keeps Merriam coming back… and I believe that this is the hope that she senses and perhaps she too can obtain in Christ Jesus…

Part of this revelation to me anyway, is that sometimes we labor so hard, and we speak the truth, we speak it in love, we love, we show grace… and because we don’t perceive certain responses or hear certain things, we tend to think that nothing is happening. But God is faithful, we sow, we water, we nature, but God brings the increase. Truly I thank God, and my heart rejoices. I am also thankful for those that the Lord has provided, Joe, Sherri, Mildred, Joan and Suzanne, the brothers and sisters from SonRise that are my co-laborers in Christ, I thank God for them and their faithfulness..

I guess, now I get to go to the Rose Garden to be ministered to…

The Lord never ceases to amaze me!

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Sunday Morning Rituals

Vince Lotito — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 16:15:54 GMT

The only Jesus they may ever see will be in you! That was the theme of a message delivered to the saints yesterday at SonRise by a resolute and passionate Billy Elias. I thank God for Billy and his zeal for the Lord.

Yesterday, Billy really hit home with his message. In the backdrop of the emerging Sunday morning religion of “sports”, where the Cathedral is being replaced with the stadium and the things of Christ are being replaced with the things of soccer, baseball and football. And if you’ve ever tried to get together with friends, neighbors and family, you surely know of the impossibility of infringing on the Sunday sports rituals, never mind the thought of getting them into church.

Over the past 6 months or so I’ve been praying for a friend that I lost touch with about eight years ago, and truly miss. Recently the Lord has re-connected us. Our conversation was very typical because we both missed each others friendship, and as we talked he asked me “Vince, how could we let this happen to us?” He as right, how could we let this happen to us? As we talked more, it became apparent that as we pursue the business of our lives we often gain some things and loose others. In our case we lost our friendship. Hopefully we can rekindle our friendship, we both desire it. What also became real apparent are the real differences in our Sunday morning religions. Mine, the ministry at SonRise and the Rose Garden and his the ministry of Sunday morning sports, with his daughters into “cheerleading” and running around the country to compete in various competitions and his son into little leagues sports.

As Billy said, we need to get involved in this new religion because the only Jesus that they may ever see will be in you. That has really resonated with me, especially, since that is a message I often speak about. Especially in the area of outreach, but I nevertheless needed to hear it in the context of the Sunday morning sports rituals. I needed to hear it in the context of my lost friendship, where the only hope of renewal is in directly threatened by our Sunday morning rituals. Now I need to pray how the Lord can involve me into their “rituals” so they will see Jesus… after all, it may be the only Jesus that they may ever see.

Lord, help me to reach out! Restore and renew a lost friendship. Help me to bring Jesus in the Sunday mornings rituals. Do it for Jesus’ sake! Amen.

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I know it's the Blood!

Vince Lotito — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 16:31:46 GMT

Victoria, sweet, sweet Victoria. Frail and week, old and tired, confined to a wheel chair, breathing with the aid of oxygen, but nevertheless, with arms raised heavenward, she collects her strength and cries… “I know it’s the blood! I know it’s the Blood! I know it’s the BLOOD! Nothing but the blood of Jesus, that saves me.” Ahhh, what faith, I have not seen faith like this in all of Toms River. Victoria is unmovable, she is determined and cannot and will not be told otherwise. She knows where her strength and salvation lies… in the Blood of Christ.

I met Victoria a little over a year ago, when she had come to the Rose Garden to receive fulltime care she so desperately needs. Victoria is stricken with disease that comes from old age. I remember the first the time she joined us for our Sunday afternoon service…. She was in her wheel chair, struggling for breathe, she wore a big wig, had big looped eye glasses. And as I preached Christ and lifted Him up amongst the residents of the nursing home, she cried “Hallelujah” and “Amen.”

Afterwards, I went over to meet with her, and she was so thankful that she had entered a place where she could attend Sunday services. We prayed for her that day as we often do and the Lord in His mercy has eased her pains. I even remember the couple of times Victoria came to the service with only the aid of her walker, no wheel chair and no oxygen. Victoria, praised the Lord. And when her legs began to fail her again, she came back in her wheel chair, she nevertheless praised the Lord. This past week, I noticed that she was back on the oxygen… but nevertheless, she praised the Lord… and I can still see her sitting there, with her arms raised, shaking her head side to side in confirmation to her steadfast beliefs … saying “I know it’s the blood! I know it’s the Blood! I know it’s the BLOOD! Nothing but the blood of Jesus, that saves me.”

I praise God for Victoria…

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Redding Up!

Vince Lotito — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 18:57:26 GMT

In an on going effort to get things back to pre-fire days, I’ve been cleaning things up. This week’s project was to go clean out an filing cabinet and replace it with one that I could move a fish tank onto (better laid plans)…

The files that were being red up were all business/employment items that I’ve accumulated over the past 20 years. I was really amazed to see so many things that I have literally forgotten about. There were some things I was pleased with and some that I was not so pleased with. In all, it was a trip down memory lane and despite the memories and what not, I managed to purge about 99% of the stuff.

I guess it is ok to revisit the things of our past, but I am more excited about the here and now and the here ever after in the presence of my King, Jesus.

Blessings

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.Net Dino

Vince Lotito — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 14:50:47 GMT

I hate to admit it, but it looks like I've become a .Net Dinosaur. What? Well maybe I'm exaggerating... As you've undoubtedly noticed, the blogging framework has moved from .Text to SubText. I figured it would be a slam dunk for a seasoned .Net'r like myself. Maybe not.

After debating to go to Community Server / SubText, I decided to check out SubText because it appealed to the hacker in me and it was more open (source) then Community Server. So I download the source version of the software and decide to look under the hood (so to speak) and before I even had a chance to kick the tires, I bump into a project that has been developed in later versions of Visual Studio. I guess I need to get off the dime and upgrade my Visual Studio 2003 to some late great flavor. I must admit, the though of downloading the express free version crossed my mind, and was just as quickly quelled at the thought of destroying my ancient but stable development environment. So the conservative dino in me decide it is better error on the side of caution and move on.

So on to the binary version and the “5 minute setup...” downloaded and anxious to get a test version onto the server… Not so easy, I find myself running into all issues, IP addresses, firewall rules and NAT routing SSL, virtual directories... arrgghh..

With that behind me and onto the 5 minute install.. not so fast, antiquity strikes again... SubText is deployed in .Net 2.x and we've running .Net 1.x Update... You know one update leads to another... You know when your getting old, when you feel like a .Net Dinosaur!