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Intimacy with God

 
February 22, 2010
 

What a Blessing

Friends,

Thanks for your faithfulness.  Prayer is central in our lives and certainly the work of ILI.  The evil one kept throwing loopy obstacles in the way, but the Lord provided or had a plan every step of they way.  I want to share some especially powerful manifestations of the Lord's working.

From Hemet we had a couple from Mongolia who were two of the first converts in that nation.  Aldar and Tula Dambaev are focused missionaries with ongoing work in the area where Russia, Mongolia, and China meet.  They immediately caught the vision of ILI and its potential at a variety of levels.  They are serious about doing something with ILI in that part of the world.  From what I saw, they've got the passion, faith, and drive to carry out whatever the Lord lays on their hearts.  It was truly amazing.

Rodney Nashem is from Redding, Ca.  He called just two days before the conference telling me that the Lord would not let go of him.  He was wondering if there was still room.  I told him to come on and he came.  Redding is an 8 hour drive from Santa Clarita.  The Lord worked through the conference to solidify his vision to equip and empower believers from his church for the work of world evangelization.  I think he will become a solid partner and good friend.

We were especially blessed to have some exceptional presenters with us.  James Mason is on staff with the US Center for World Mission in Pasadena.  He shared "Passion for the Harvest."  While being faithful to the ILI material, he folded in information from the the US Center that really lifted up the need for the Gospel among the world's "Unreached Peoples."  Mike Brown was electrifying with "Culturally Relevant Evangelism."  He's planting a church in North Hollywood, perhaps one of the toughest mission fields in the US.  Praise God for his clarity and commitment.  Barry Franks' presentation on Stewardship was the best I've seen.  He modeled the lifestyle of faithfulness with money and time, not just talked about it.  Along with Barry, Darlene Franks and Kathy Fong were first-time presenters at an ILI RC conference.  Their excellent job affirmed that the vision for Multiplication is a right vision and ILI a worthy tool.

Be in prayer for the next ILI Regional Conference in California.  This one is a Spanish speaking conference in Bakersfield, CA.  The Hispanic community in the San Joaquin Valley has caught the vision.  Keep them in prayer as the Lord continues his work.

I'll be off the radar screen for a season.  Got to get back to my day job.  I'll let you know when the next opportunity comes up to pray for an English speaking ILI RC in California.

With great thanksgiving,

Kyle

Filed under  //   Intimacy with God  
Posted by Leadership Beyond 

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December 14, 2009
 

ILI Prayer Team

(download)

Dear friends,

We are ten weeks away from our next ILI Regional Conference in California in Santa Clarita on Feb. 19-21, 2010.  If memory serves this will be our 5th regional conference in California following the first at Redwood Christian Park in the Santa Cruz mountains in 2008.

I'm writing to invite you to be a part of the prayer team for the regional conference in Santa Clarita.  (For you Northern Californians, next door to Valencia, on the Grape Vine.)

I'm sending this to you for one or more of the following reasons:

    1. I know you to be a faithful intercessor.
    2. You have been exposed to ILI and have been stirred by the vision of leaders equipping leaders.
    3. You are a leader who understands the ongoing, difficult task of transforming pew sitters into Kingdom leaders.
    4. You were faithful to pray for the conference in Tehachapi.

If you are willing to pray, you'll receive a weekly prayer reminder to focus your prayer.  As you know, you don't need to take a lot of time.  Read it, lift it up, and delete it. 
If you feel you are unable to pray for whatever reason, let me know and I'll drop you from the group, and I won't be offended.  I hate a loaded email box as much as you do!

To begin, pray for the key leaders of the conference.  Mike Brown is one of the elders of our host church, Copperhill Community Church.  He is a faithful guy who has served with me over the years in a variety of capacities.  He attended the ILI RC in Tehachapi.  He's responsible for the hospitality needs of the conference.  Bill Morehouse is pastor of Christ's Church of the Valley in Palmdale.  He also attended the RC in Tehachapi and quickly recognized the transforming impact of ILI and it's potential.  He hopes to host a conference sometime in the Fall of 2010 in the Antelope Valley.  He's responsible for all the registration details.  Finally, pray for yours truly.  My duties are the care and feeding of our conference faculty.  We've got a great line-up prepared.  All we need is for the Lord to fill it with his presence.  Thus, the need for prayer!

Again, thanks for your faifulness, and now, to the work of prayer!

With great hope and expectation.

Kyle

PS: I've attached a registration form.  Distribute as the Lord leads.

Filed under  //   Intimacy with God  
Posted by Leadership Beyond 

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October 24, 2009
 

The Transforming Power of Grace

This from Jordan McGrath, a sophomore at Biola University. Check out his blog at puppylovintheology.wordpress.com.  God's grace makes a difference way down deep.

Kyle Phillips

Love

When God opens His arms of love and grace, my soul withdraws, hiding in the assurance of unworthiness.  Concealing my soul for fear of the illuminations of my sin.  God, seeing the abandonment of my soul, pulls closer with the arms of love and wonders why I run away.  I try and reason foolishly that a worthy guest ought be here in place of me.  And with the quiet voice of acceptance he tells me I am he.

Still even then, I manage to question my Maker again: I the sinner, the unworthy, the ungrateful?  I am unfit to see You.  And so then He grabs my hand in His, and with a smile, assures me that it was He who created sight.  But I still let my embarrassment get in the way.  I tell Him to send me to where I deserve. 

My Creator then, with patience I never knew existed, sits me down and from across, looks me in the eye and smiles.  He proceeds to tell me, surprised that I have so easily forgotten, that He took my deserved penalty. And so as we sit there, the Creator of the universe and the foolish, irrational me, He reaches out His hands in a humble example of His sacrifice. 

I sit there, crying in the shame of my own doubt, gazing upon the wounds that set me free from the bondage that kept me just moments ago.  We just sit here a while and cry.  And after a short while, my God squeezes my hand and tells me these words.  “You must never forget that I am the one who created you, who sustained you all the days of your life.  I am the one who redeemed you from the depths of your sin and the consequences of it.  Do this now: lay yourself down, put yourself aside, and remember these wounds.  Remember them well so you may be thoroughly ready for the work I have for you.” 

And so I did, and I do.

from Jordan McGrath, puppylovintheology.wordpress.com

Filed under  //   Intimacy with God  
Posted by Leadership Beyond 

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October 22, 2009
 

Staying the Course - a lesson from the life of John & Charles Wesley

Most of us know John and Charles Wesley as the poster boys for revival and worship in England. The impact of these guys on the world at large is undeniable. Given the glossy treatment, you would think that they were raised by perfect parents to be saints in an imperfect world. The truth of their back story is much juicier.

Their father, Samuel, was a local pastor struggling to make ends meet. Their mother, Susanna, was a dominant influence in their early lives. Her family were strong people of faith from the Pietism movement. Classical education was the order of the day and John could read and write – Greek, Hebrew and English by age 12. Given their family history it’s no surprise that they both entered the ministry.

Here’s the rub. While John and Charles were high achievers under their mothers’ watchful eye, they had little real paternal guidance and influence in their lives. As a result both John and Charles would grow to have problematic relationships in their lives, especially with women, at least in John’s case. Moreover, while both of the Wesley boys were hyper-educated (certainly by our standards) about the Bible, both of them were Ordained as Anglican ministers while in what we would call today and “unsaved” condition.  They knew a lot about Jesus, (see my blog from 10/15/09, Next Steps), but their lives lacked, at that point, Holy Spirit power.

These deadly deficiencies in “Intimacy with God” (unsaved ministers on mission?) coupled with an upbringing that did not role model balanced “Family Priorities” (lack of strong Father figure), ultimately led John Wesley to near ruin. On the way over to the Colonies, John became romantically involved with the wife of a colonist. Satan took things over from there and the upshot of all of this is that John Wesley, had to sneak out of the colony under cover of darkness to make his way back to England by ship. Charles would follow some time later.

The rest of the story is more familiarly known. John would receive Godly counsel and support from a group of Moravians that he met on his voyage over and back. The Moravians were very missions focused and lived lives that were truly consistent with the Gospel. Amazed at their joy in the Lord and their living witness to the Gospel, John would be led ultimately to the Lord as would Charles.

Everyone likes an underdog-makes-good story, God especially. John would go on to be part of a countrywide revival that would change the course of history. Charles would go on to write and publish no less than 4,000 hymns. His work would get so much air time that nearly everyone in the western world today knows at least one of his famous hymns, Hark! the Herald Angels Sing. You can’t thumb through a hymnal without tripping over his stuff.

I believe that the Wesley story of tragedy and triumph underscores the validity of the core values that we teach at ILI. While the Wesley’s had some holes in their program, it is really the Moravian “Passion for the Harvest” in concert with their other strong values that God used to bring John and Charles to Him. Satan had them in their pride, arrogance and fleshly desires, but the Holy Spirit won them back to the Glory of God.

How cool is that?

Watch this interesting video on Charles Wesley, from Mark Driscoll’s series on The Rebels Guide to Joy.

~mab

 

Filed under  //   Intimacy with God   Passion  
Posted by Leadership Beyond 

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October 12, 2009
 

Becoming Fully Trained

I came upon a remarkable scripture during my devotional one morning in October.  It was one of those, “I’ve read this passage a millions times, but never saw that” kind of moment.

 

 

The verse comes out of the Gospel of Luke.  It is the very familiar passage where Jesus is talking about taking the log out of your own eye before trying to take the speak out of a brother’s eye.  The verse is Luke 6:40,

 

A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.

 

I had just been praying to be more like Jesus.  Specifically, my desire was to be more like Jesus in the area of prayer.  Earlier, in Luke 6:12, we see Jesus going out to the mountain to pray.  Verse 12 says that he spent all night in prayer.  Whatever else may have been going on up there on that mountain, certainly the Lord was sharing his heart with the Father and listening as the Father shared his heart with him.  He came down the mountain and then selected the twelve men who would become his closest followers. 

 

 

 

Jesus would come to pour his life into these men so that when they were fully trained, they would be like him.  Jesus made them that promise.  And he kept it. His disciples became like him in their boldness, wisdom, power, authority, and love.  They came to change the world because Jesus fully trained them and thereby changed them.  They became like him.

 

 

 

I want Jesus to train me fully, just like he did the twelve.  I want his clarity of purpose, his passion for the lost, his kingdom authority, his healing power, his intimacy with the Father, and his ability to love.  

 

 

 

Authentic kingdom leadership comes from the character of Christ manifest through us.  It would seem like an impossible standard to achieve except for this wonderful promise: when we are fully trained we will be like Jesus.  Lord, train me up in the way I should go!

 

 

Kyle Phillips

Filed under  //   Intimacy with God  
Posted by Leadership Beyond 

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