We just completed our biggest outreach of the year. Imagine over 10,000 people in one place who all are following a false doctrine and a false god. 10,000 people who are lost and who do not know love. Do not know hope. And do not have peace. Who work every single day to earn that which they cannot and to be saved from what they are fated to endure. 10,000 people who have never gone to sleep at night with the assurance that if the next day did not come, that they would wake up in their Father's Holy and Strong Arms. Now imagine 200 people who DO know peace, who DO know LOVE, and who DO know where they will spend their eternity. Now imagine the interaction between the two.

Mix in some heavy duty Frank Peretti style of warfare going on and intense activity between powers, principalities, and the Almighty One and His Warriors.

You have a pretty good picture of what we dealt with in the last two weeks. And He was faithful. And True. And His Truth withstood the test. As always. As forever.

Mighty, awesome, wonderful.
Is the Holy Cross.
Where the Lamb lay down His life.
To lift us from the fall.

Mighty, awesome, wonderful.
Is the Holy Cross.
Where the Lamb lay down His life.
To lift us from the fall.

Mighty is...
The power of...
Mighty is...
The power of...
The Cross.

Thank you, Father. You are ever faithful and ever strong and always True.

I saw things this past week that I really hope stay ingrained on my heart and mind's eye. Not because they were good or right but because they were a picture of reality. Men who did not know and who mocked and jeered and spit and screamed and laughed and pushed and shoved and who blasphemed in their children's ears. Men who bowed, who prayed, who believed, who served, who loved, who sang, who cried. The battles are not against the people but against the darkness surrounding them. Thank you, LORD, we already have the victory. It is Yours. In Your hands. Finished. Complete. Just let the story play out.

I am so grateful and excited to be on His side. Seriously. Think about it... I know what I used to be.

Take a moment to think about the last time you were thrown on your knees or back off of your feet overwhelmed by His love - for you or for someone else. I mean, literally, thrown back and overwhelmed by the intensity and commitment of unconditional love - one that seeks and requires nothing in return and loves for the mere sake of loving. The last time you were given a glimpse of who someone is in His eyes. Of their hurt, their pain, their secerts, their faults, their sin, their darkness... the parts that only the Holy Spirit can see. The last time you were given a glimpse of what He desires them to be. What He wants to create - the new creature, cleaned, healed, reborn into something incredible and pleasing and desirable and Holy. If you haven't been in this spot yet, for yourself especially, then please... go find your secert place with Him and ASK for it! But if you have... you understand what I saw and what I see. And where I am. And why they lay so heavy on my heart. Why I am for the first time understanding Paul - that he would give up his own for the sake of theirs.

His love is so much more beautiful when they understand and see it too... when it is shared. It sounds like a very hippy idea, but seriously... think about it. How can we be silent? The rocks and the trees, the mountains and streams - the very EARTH groans with Him and His glory and will cry out and shout if we do not.

Shout. Cry. Express it. That joy is not ours to hold to alone...