Cheerleader

Someone asked me "how it is that i don’t let IT go to my head", (referring to an audiences affirmation and applause). I gave him some reasonable explanations but I held back fearing my anger and frustration would come out at the wrong time in front of the wrong people.

Here is the real answer. Here is why it doesn’t go to my head - why I don’t follow my dreams the way I should and why more people don’t follow their dreams and take risks: (you ready)
Because there will always be someone waiting in the wings, with regularity to make sure you know that you are not any better than you were yesterday, that what you do is not only misunderstood but not understandable and for that reason not relevant and useful. There will always be someone waiting to make sure you know that you are less than what God sees you as.

I have noticed with young men in my circle of influence that a few choice and focused words can without hesitation lower the ceiling to within microns of their head.
The next time they jump they hit their head, HARD. And you might think that would be deterrent enough to prevent any more jumping. But you would be wrong. There are plenty of men out there that experience low ceilings and still jump.

So what is the real deterrent? how DO you make a mans heart grow cold? Well, its something the devil has celebrated since the beginning of time…SHAME - his silly little tool that he uses with precision and accuracy. It is so insidious a tool that he can wield a force to level an army. But the funny thing is he doesn’t need to – he just needs to topple a great man or woman.
You want to make a man stop jumping - don’t lower the ceiling or cut his legs off.
Shame him – make him feel like just a man. Tear him down with your words and your tone.

What’s wrong with considering myself as just a man? Everything! (for a follower of Christ).
Gods effort to revive my soul with His indwelling Spirit says that I cannot fail and therefore I must see myself useful in the His economy.
Why do we make each other conscious of our flesh when the Lord is wanting us to be conscious of our Spirit, The Holy Spirit and do what is necessary to proclaim His Gospel.
Jesus said himself that I will do what He has done and greater (because He will ask the Father on my behalf to make it so).

So where are the cheerleaders? Where are you? It is a skill to see sin in someone, to see the flesh but to celebrate potential and Gods will for someone. Start practicing that for it is a lost art in the Church.
Make men see what Gods sees in them. Bring out in them the things that the Holy Spirit will use! Bring the things in them that will benefit their spouses and children, that will benefit their church and community.
Sadly the few cheerleaders in my life have small voices compared to the blaring sirens that constantly offer me their services. It is a difficult but necessary choice to believe the small voice. It is a choice to “be still” (psalm 46) and commune with the Lord. It is a choice to let the Holy Spirit in you and God the Father commune – a divine communion that can and will literally kill you. It is a choice to let your physical body waste away during this divine contraction.
Why is this necessary? … because we haven’t seen the fullness of our suffering. (Colossians 1)
I have had more people talk down to me and treat me like a servant in the past few weeks than I have in years. It has been a hard, hard time and I resent it (or at least my flesh and ego does) but it has been good for me to see that I am capable of extraordinary stillness and prayer.
It has been a difficult time to keep my head up but I know in the end the right parts of me will corrode and die away and the Holy Spirit will own more real estate in my body. After all i am a prince of the Kingdom and my mind is to be focused on my Fathers affairs.


moving on…

I have 17 saved messages on my phone, most of which are from my friend Jim.
Jim is my one of my biggest fans, one of my best friends and an amazing encouragement to me.
Out of all of my friends he has not only encouraged me to dream big but has made sure, almost on a weekly basis, that I hear Gods thoughts about me.

Next time I see you, ask me to play some of his messages. He is Jesus to me when I need a physical reminder of kindness, encouragement and friendship.

Be that to someone. We need the young men in the Church to heal of their baggage and move on and forward with the Lord. As much as I would like to make them do pushups and scream at them all day I know, because I know personally how it affects me, the God given power of words and encouragement.

Tell them who you see them being in the future through Jesus. Tell them they can do it. Tell them they will do it because Jesus refuses to fail them.
Make them feel as Jesus would.

Our words carry with them real life consequences. Be the cheerleader.

Foresight. Forthsight... What's the Difference?

Foresight. Forthsight… What’s the Difference?

"Assign blame with our tongues and our mouths

All our limbs rigid, not ready to help us kneel

Strive ahead, there is no need for redemption

For there will always be new flowers to peel

Throw ‘em away, because what’s done is done

And who cares if there are several chapters to read -

This song has been sung.

Move on dear one and don’t look back ‘cause we know what’s best

For we’re not and you shouldn’t be really concerned

for what God can resurrect"

These are the sentiments of a generation... those who are willing to move fast and make decisions based on limited facts and information and have and will continue to change our future. who believes in redemption anymore? only those who have experienced it - who have lived alongside the suffering and have taken on a suffering of their own.

those believers are an endangered species, unlike any others i meet.

there is value in God's redeeming power - He can take broken things and make them new, far beyond their original state or intent. it is a breathtaking thing to behold - a renewed life, a renewed marriage, maybe even a renewed trust.

i believe in the resurrection and the redemptive power that comes from it, the power that enables me to approach the cross and relieve my shame and guilt.

someone once told me that i "bring shame and reproach to the cross" and "shame to real christians". i have to agree with the former - i do bring shame and reproach to the cross every day and thank God it is strong enough to handle my iniquities.

Foresight - [def.] "the act or power of foreseeing. an act of looking forward"

Forthsight - [def.] "actually a made up word but used in the context of 'foresight' adding to the definition the act of seeing the present and letting it affect our view of the future".

i heard these two words used in a sermon the other day - one word doesnt exist in the english language but its definition does exist (or should).

soothsayers see the future and tell us what is coming ahead - there is as much value in that as buying a lottery ticket... even a blind squirrel can find a nut every once in a while.

[but even if the word doesnt exist in the English language] i love my friends definition of 'forthsight': our ability to take in our present surroundings, meditate on all Truth, and then go for a glimpse of what is coming ahead.

i think we all need to add that 'fake word' to our vocabulary because we are moving too fast and throwing things and people away that can be redeemed.

we must, as an educated Church, slow down and take in all the information (everything we can get our hands on) and then make our decisions for the future.

and God help us if we make decisions for other people based on what we don't know. God help us indeed.

an old 'father' of mine said, "if there is anything to redeem, let God redeem it".

that has become one of the greatest lessons of my life - to let God redeem the broken things in my life. it limits my consumption and helps me see people and relationships as necessary and unexpendable.

let us never look too far ahead and ignore the potential that rests right next to us in some altered state.

Amber Bottles

I have learned a great deal in a few minutes of my life – minutes that are spread out, flattened by the weight of great color and experience, over decades from the time I was wearing holes in my “toughskins” to wearing out the seats in my Honda Element.

If those minutes were afforded me to learn, then what have I done with the rest of the minutes and seconds - the hours that gird the rest of the story?

For I am an expert in hate. And lets for the sake of argument and discourse say that when I say hate, I use that to umbrella all the sentiments of anger, rage, bitterness, malice and plain ole indifference that I store in an amber bottle (so as not to spoil the flavor) on a shelf in my room.

I leave it there so I will never run out – its there because its too heavy and powerful to carry around. Lets just say, it’s my thing.

But I have a picture of it that I carry with me, somewhat of a practical, laptop, explainable, usable version of the commodore 64 in my room (for those of you who don’t know what a commodore 64 is, I’m not even gonna try).

Per great counsel and strict conviction I have done a good job of not clothing myself with my portable hate. I took the picture of it out of my wallet and I stopped wearing “negative” clothing – things like “God hates gays”, “abortion is murder” and “Michigan sucks” (1 of the 3 I do really miss).

I even started to smile on a regular basis at people whom I really don’t have any business liking (FL plates in the mountains – don’t know what I mean? Come up to the mountains in a blizzard and drive with ‘em).

I have done a great job over my twenty-three years as a believer in Jesus of leaving home without my “hate”.

Two weeks ago, my cute little mountain house lost water and the week after that we lost heat. So life became real simple and I had to pack up and get ready for another move.

Tshirts, check. Dvd’s, check. Toiletries, check. Pictures, hmm (stall….)

Picture after picture, page after page, memory after memory and all of sudden I realized that I was having an allergic reaction of sorts.

My body became rigid and cold and this one little spot on the wall was moving like a freaking action movie (of my life). My life scrolled slowly in my front of my eyes – disappointment after disappointment, broken friendship after broken friendship, broken deals, broken words… oh, how I hate those who have disappointed me, left me, forsaken me. Their numbers are vast and their falsehoods immeasurable. Ugh!

How could I have loved such miserable people? It’s a good thing I didn’t have anything to do with it (tongue in cheek).

Lie(s), check…

See I told a friend, “its easy to tell the truth when you are so good at lying to yourself”. Kind of harsh, I know. But she needed to hear it and it was the truth. When you lie to yourself, you can become an amazing truthteller.

What’s the merit in being such a truthteller, in being such a stand up person in public when we just go home and get drunk on the things we stored up and hid on shelves in the back?

I am an expert in hate, an expert because I drink heavily of the things I have stored up on this earth. And you should see my shelves (well, actually – its better that you don’t. I want you to buy my CD’s and now maybe you’re starting to see what I did with all those hours).

We are moving into an era in the Church where the ghosts need to come out of the closet and we all need to come clean about our messes.

Yes, that has been true of the past but never more appropriate a plea for the immediate Church.

The “unchurched” and the “churched” alike are not going to fall for those who say, “Come follow me…but don’t get too close – just trust me from afar”.

Are we being baptized in public only to go home and submit to the amber bottles on our shelves? If I’m gonna be a hypocrite, if I have some freedom to pick which battles I lose, let me not lose that one. Let me not choose to hate, let me not choose to be a victim when I have access to an amazing lifegiver. Let me choose things that are better for me AND others.

I have a friend named Grant Knisely – he is an award winning videographer and documentary writer. I met him at a retreat in the US and the second time we met up was in Sri Lanka when he came to make a documentary with me.

He is not perfect, not by any means so I don’t mean to paint a picture like that.

But for some reason, of all the friends I have and the acquaintances I have made I think of him when I make this point.

He is so willing to travel light… in part because he’s carrying his video gear but also because its better for everyone else. (That’s not a plug for socialism but take it for what it is). He packs light, moves quickly and is extremely helpful and flexible. He displays a strange “lack of self” and the only reason I share that is to make this small point.

He seems to have traded in some of his amber bottles, the ones that are just for him, for some that can feed “the many”.

Hell, I got so many bottles on the shelf I need to see what’s in ‘em before I trade them in but it’s a step in the right direction for me to at least count them. Why am I so burdened when I live a good, honorable public life? Because I’m a closet drinker? It may be so.

So what of all these full bottles on these full shelves in our full houses? Break ‘em. Burn ‘em. Because in reality, all we have done is put a lot of poison in one place – a lot of sedatives on one shelf and a lot of indifference on our plates. And we have become fat from feeding on them in private.

Travel lighter, need less, bless more… do we really have the freedom to carry things that can change a life? I believe so… and maybe even “bring the dead to life” (to put a more “lord of the rings” spin to things, haha).

You and I may need to consider what we are packing for this next trip. We may need to rethink what lies we are comfortable with, how we steward the time that cushions our significant minutes. We may need to rethink from whom we will learn great truths and certainly we must consider those we intend to influence.

Because we’re not here long and we don’t really get to pick which minutes will be significant. We’ll be required to just take it as it comes so why not bless all those we can. I, for one, don’t want to miss out because I was in the back getting hammered on the old stock. If I have the freedom to choose – that will not be my legacy. Break the bottles.

HELP

Hello friends,

It has been close to 7 years since I quit my job as a tennis instructor and trainer and started playing music fulltime. It has taken me to several new countries on three continents and let me pack away story after story of Gods faithfulness. It has been an incredible journey to say the least.

After 7 years I am feeling called to change direction and retool my skill set and I am asking for your help to do that.

I have made my living in the “Christian” market since the start but am now looking to work where the talent is beyond my talent and the skill even further - in the secular market.

I have a dizzying desire to see those who are far off come to know the Lord and I feel that I need to be regularly playing in music venues that will put me in front of folks who don’t know Jesus or may not want to know Him.

When the economy was good I was able to frequent such places but with declining CD sales, dwindling guarantees and the onset of the digital music age I have not been able to “reach out” with my music for several years now.

I have been tied up making a living and sadly have not been able to improve – I spend most of my time driving from state to state burning $10,000 in fuel and food a year and not getting done what I need to get done. I need to be playing to secular crowds – in bars, at YL camps, on the street, etc.

So for the next year I have made it my goal to raise $25,000 to help me accomplish this task.

Broken down, this is what the money will go towards:

“Arches” CD production - $5K

“Love” CD production - $8K

Fuel costs - $5K

CD manufacturing - $3K

Guitar and Voice Lessons - $1K

Not For Sale Investigator Academy - $2K

YL Summer Assignment - $1K

Some of the money I will raise will go to subsidize my time at YL camp and pay for my tuition to go to school at the Not For Sale Abolitionist Academy in California for two weeks. I have spent the last two years as a speaker/activist for victims of human trafficking and would very much like to further my education with this organization.

(For those of you not familiar with the work of the Not For Sale Campaign, please visit www.notforsalecampaign.org).

The remainder of the money will go to the production and manufacturing of two CD’s, subsidizing my travel costs and taking lessons to improve my guitar playing and singing.

Please prayerfully consider partnering with me and supporting me in this endeavor. I will still be leading worship events and preaching and discipling this year but feel very called by the Lord to “light the match” in the dark places. I cannot do this without your involvement.

If you are able to help financially by pre-purchasing the two cd’s please make out your check for $30 or more payable to:

PW Gopal

PO Box 457

Banner Elk, NC 28604

If you can give more I would greatly appreciate it. Email me at merchandise@pwgopal.com if you would like to use a credit card.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE include your mailing address so I can mail you the cd’s when they are completed.

Thank you friends! It’s because of your faithfulness in my life that I am asking for your help.

Godspeed,

PW Gopal

the Blessed

sitting here in a coffeeshop in downtown Greenville, SC with my very special, Amanda. just got in last night after spending Christmas morning with my beautiful niece and family then driving a quick 8 hrs to the Carolinas.

i say quick because it really was. got a phone call from my good friend Jim Trick but the rest of the time i was sitting (of course, because you cant do much else when you are driving) and i was grateful.

i am grateful that i am finally at peace after a brutal few years. i am dating someone who i not only love but is also good for me. i am, for some strange reason, more committed to "learning" now than i have been my whole life and i am grateful for the friendships that have brought me to this place. now for all those ready to find fault with the fact i didnt mention Jesus in the credits need to know that He is sitting with me as i write this.:)

We drove yesterday through the mountains for six of the eight hours and He reminded me of the gentle ones, the firm ones, the loving ones, the learned ones, the wise and humble ones He has surrounded me with. This might have been my greatest Christmas ever! and i spent most of it alone in my car.

i am grateful because of what God has done. the story that i started reading at the Cross is now being written with me in the story... with you too. two thousand years later we are writing the rest of the story. so what will i write? what will you write?

as much as i want to be grateful i spend much time wanting and reaching for a different "where" and for a different "now" - always hungry, never satisfied.

but...i rejoice that i can pick up my pen and write a new day in. its my story and it doesnt have to stop now. i dont have to be the person i am now for the rest of my life.

i can grow! and i dont mean becoming more efficient at life or more tame in crisis or satisfied. i can actually grow.

its a day later and i am still wanting more for my life but i realize that i must first "become" something before i can "do" something (great). i have a teacher who is more than willing to teach me and i can continue on not just to fight the good fight, but to win all those around me.

to win the souls of those around me.

so what is it that i want to become? i dont know if there is a word for it. im being honest.

im just not sure there is a word for it (at least in the English language).

"blessed are the peacemakers"... is this what we call those who are peace to us?

i know only Jesus will bring us to Shalom.... but maybe i can be an agent who sees and tells of the pefection that is to come, when all things will be restored and be at peace.

see what i mean? is there a word for the onlookers and escorts of the Shalom? if you know of it, please tell me. i guess for now "blessed" is as good an any.

so, for now, ill just say i want to be "blessed".

Loyalty - "what i learned from a redneck"...

I'm going to be 39 in a few months and when i look in the mirror... i cant believe i look this good (lol). just kidding - i actually cant believe the Lord let me live this long.

i never planned on living past 30 - i figured i would get shot in some foreign country sharing the Gospel with some unreached people group.... sigh, how romantic. but the reality is i will probably meet my Maker because i fell asleep driving to a gig or i choked on a chicken wing or something.

"Esse Quam Videri" - thats what i have tattooed on my arm - "to be rather than to appear".

its weird to look down on arm and see that reminder every day charging me to

actually be (something) rather than just to appear like (that) something.

how do you make sense of romantic things when the daily, ordinary and mundane are always staring you in the face? i never wanted to be ordinary.

i never wanted to be noticed but i certainly didnt want to be ordinary.

classy! thats what i wanted to be.

to weild the ability to make something extraordinary and look like i had no part in it or used little effort - wow! that was something to me and i know a few folks who can do just that.

i have a friend... his name is Jason. he is the biggest redneck i know. (and i know a lot).

i always refer to him as my redneck friend:) its just easier that way.

anyway, its a long and involved story how we became friends but he is certainly one of my best friends.

he is young, much younger than me but has already accomplished a lot.

he was raised by some great, God fearing parents and has become just a unique friend in my life.

i have always been wooed by the simple life and am envious that Jason gets to enjoy certain things on a daily basis.

He is a worship pastor but is probably the only worship pastor i know that can drive a track hoe, bulldozer, crane, forklift, oh and bench 300 lbs... you see where i am going with this?

i can credit his parents for his character but the Lord has built into him something that i rarely see or experience. he is one of the most loyal friends i have, maybe the most.

at the drop of a hat, if i need him, he will be there for me.

some of you know that i have owned a rental property in KY for over three years and have been financially and emotionally tortured with it. Jason, living three hours away, drives down regularly (never taking a dime for gas) with his massive truck full of tools and spends the weekend with me working on this "pile-of-crap-with-a-roof".

we sat down this spring for some wings and beer and i remember him encouraging me that it was going to get better - that the weight that was crushing me was going to ease up.

that, in itself made me feel a bit better but then he said, "and if i have to, i'll drive down there this summer and replace the roof myself so when you get back from camp you wont have to worry about it. i want you to be free".

yesterday my friend told me that a professor friend of his said that the "purpose of the church was to be missional" - maybe....

i guess it depends on if you are all talk or not.

Jason has been the hands and feet of Jesus to me. He puts his money where his mouth is, so to speak. so i believe him when he says "Jesus loves me" and "its gonna be alright".

in my mind you can't do the things of the Church unless YOU are the things of the Church -

unless you have been transformed and are spilling out all over Creation the things of God, there is no sense in going anywhere. you will just be a horrible clingy noise where God is begging for silence.

i laugh a lot when i look at my dip spitting, tire burning, shotgun shooting, beer drinking friend and i see Jesus. it makes me smile and know that God is good.

"hostile witness"

Just got off the phone with a pastor who called me a “rockstar” and politely declined me leading worship at his church. that may be in part because I didn’t feel comfortable using the church band or it may be that he just doesn't trust me. neither notion makes me comfortable and unfortunately for me it has become one of hundreds of situations where i feel like "me" and the guy on the other end of the phone, (who represents the local church) were not meeting eye to eye.

Let me be clear about something before I move on. I have no delusions of my status in the rock star world nor do I have any notions that I am an expert on all things church and worship.

I am in part a hostile witness to the events that are shaping and molding our culture and church today and If I don’t get them out of my head, its going to be ugly. So read on… or don’t.

I was in a large church in May of this year and was very excited to hear the pastor speak as I had heard many good things about him from friends.

I was greeted at the door by the youth pastor and satellite pastor and then took my seat to take in the message and continue my worship.

The church is a bit larger than most so the pastor preaches at a different church and the message is piped in to this branch.

So the screen came down, the congregation quieted and the pastor appeared on the screen. I almost reached for my popcorn I was so excited.

This is the part of church that I really like – I was a member of a church in Ohio that was considered a mega church. Not a big fan of the size of the church but I loved my pastor! What an amazing teacher and man of God. Every time he preached I was convicted, moved, educated and encouraged – I get excited even thinking about it now.

So the anticipation was killing me – I felt like a little kid waiting to take a turn at bat at my t-ball games when I was six.

The video streamed and there was the pastor greeting everyone and welcoming everyone to open their bibles.

He then stated, “ we here at bla bla bla” are a bible believing church and we actually bring our bibles to church so if you don’t have a bible with you today you probably should get one and get used to bringing one so you can actually use it as we will this morning”.

I felt the heat rising in me as my ears got hotter and I had to keep rubbing my palms on my jeans to keep them busy from harming someone near me.

I thought, “well, I’m sure that was a one time thing - this guy cant be that polarizing.” Wrong. The next hour put the last few nails in the coffin, so to speak. Little did the pastor know that the Lord would use him to catalyze my calling.

“the purpose of the church is missions, he stated, and the purpose of missions is the church”. Ill come back to this statement later but I listened and took it in knowing that something about that statement made me uncomfortable. I wrote it down with a big question mark beside it and knew I would come back to it later.

“we aren’t going to plant 10 churches in the next 10 years but 1,000” ( I was actually excited about this statement). I loved his vision and excitement and started to get drawn in to the sermon….

Something kept bothering me about his previous statement and I couldn’t put my finger on it. I pondered it for a second but then got back to the sermon.

“the Spirit of God does not live in the parachurch….they do not produce sound doctrine” ….”campus crusade for Christ, moody bible institute etc etc are not the church” and again, “they do not produce sound doctrine”.

God moves through the local church (and dare I put words in his mouth, not the parachurch).

Now I grew up in a ministry called Young Life, a parachurch ministry dedicated to the salvation of young adults in middle school and high school.

They minister to the disabled, young mothers and to communities all across the globe. It is by no stretch of the imagination been my church family for years.

I have been involved in local church bodies and was actually a church elder for a short time and after all that I know that I know that I know that the local church does not constitute the fullness of the Church of Christ.

My friend and pastor Chris Buda once said to me that we need to applaud everything good that comes into someone’s life. For those of us who have been in the church for a while we know the words of the Gospel, “the body is made up of many parts”, i.e. it takes all of us to live out the responsibilities of the Church through our local churches and ministries. If someone is better suited in this community of believers over another we, as the body need to encourage that , cheer them on and love on folks through those decisions. If we cant agree on that, then we cant agree on much else.

Im sure I am not the first to think this and certainly not the first to state this but the Church as we know it is not doing its job. We are failing in more ways than one and the ripple effect is moving steadily inside and outside the walls of the local churches and communities and institutions of education.

Failure is certainly not something to be afraid of but is part of the growth process.

I was a professional coach for 10 years and would always rejoice when I saw an athlete get over a failure and move on and grow. It was one of my favorite snapshots in my work.

I carry those “pics” with me now. I love seeing young believers fall down and get right back up ready to take on life’s challenges. You see the mistake, the flaw , the sin (if you will) – correct it and move on. It’s an amazing process of transformation the Lord has set before us.

In 2005, George Barna released a book entitled, Revolution. In it he outlines the plight of the modern American church and what “new” practices and types of believers and churches are going to emerge.

Almost 5 years later, I picked up the book and read through the stats (he is THE stats man, btw) and it earily went along with my last few years of experience.

I have visited with over 200 congregations in the last 6 years and it has led me see a few things: one, that we as the body of Christ are doing things that are not working and we are not doing the things that Jesus did as a part of our daily life.

Barna cites many “Revolutionaries” who are asking our churches and pastors, “why are we doing this?” and sometimes, more importantly, “why aren’t we doing this?”

Ken Wilson, a Vineyard pastor and author states in his book, Jesus Brand Spirituality, that (and I paraphrase) if we take on the practices of Jesus in our daily lives that we will see Him there- that we will encounter the living God in our daily movements and appointments. So to that end I started meditating on what I have seen in the past 6 six years, in the past 20 years and I have made a list of favorites.

Now I don’t know if its good or bad that I have favorites but I do. I love certain church communities and others, well…. I think we share a mutual disdain for each other wanting each other to just “go away”.

A pastor in Northern KY, after finding out that I was friends with some low life’s said this to me in an email:

“I hope you are not one of those artists that brings shame and reproach to the Cross and brings shame to real Christians”…

I’ll address his thoughts laterJ

I am going to be spending my time on this blog telling you two things. I’m going to tell you about the most amazing of people and churches that I encounter in my travels and I am going to tell you about the counterfeits and the practices that make them so.

I told Jesus years ago that I hated the church. After years and years and years of bad stories I felt like I had the right to say that to Him and He said to me with love and certainty,

“you cannot love Me and hate my bride”

so that started a new journey for me, a new road for me to traverse – what exactly does it mean to be the bride of Christ, the Church of Jesus Christ? And more importantly, “How do I love what Jesus loves? How do I love His Church?”

I don’t have great answers but I can tell you that I have learned to ask great questions (and I now know what I like and dislike).

So if you journey with me, join me in doing a few things…..

Trust the Scripture and trust the Holy Spirit who promises to “teach us all things”.

Keep a journal and write your own thoughts to share with your own communities.

And worship continually.

Btw, that’s the purpose of the Church - worship! (if I may be so bold to correct that dear pastor in my earlier story)

More to come….