JACKIE PULLINGER: THE SIGN OF THE CROSS

It seems that there are many of us in the church these days who look at miraculous signs and think, ‘If God would only do them, the whole world would come to Christ’. And they’re hoping that the Holy Spirit will fill a church while we worship, and fill it so full that it will somehow get to the ends of the Earth.

No. If it worked like that, He would not have told us to go! It does not get there by itself. It gets there if you go.

You think Jesus Christ, up there in heaven, couldn’t have done sky writing? Done a few signs and somehow by the power of God we’d all be one?

No.

The miraculous sign upon which all men will be judged was the cross. That is the miraculous sign that the world is waiting for, through us.

There’s this terrible song that we sing called “Lord Let Your Glory Fall”. I don’t know if you sing it, but I get real upset when we sing this song.

I can’t sing that song, especially when they sing it all sweet. You know what the Glory of God is? The Son of God, crushed, voluntarily.

“The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life, only to take it up again.”- John 10:17.

God gives us this same privilege. “Anyone who would follow me must take up his cross, daily.”- Luke 9:23

See? That’s it!

I don’t think the Glory of God is going to get to the ends of the Earth when we sing in church. I mean, it’s not a bad thing to do, to praise His name and bless His heart. But that’s not how the Gospel gets to the Nations.

You see, it isn’t “just” a miraculous sign. The miraculous sign comes through a man.

I think the world has yet to see this. The world has yet to see Christians laying down their lives. They’re singing in church for God to do it again.

I think we’re so rude to God. I mean, He gave us His son, He gave us His Holy Spirit and we say, ‘More, Lord’! What more can He give?

He gave everything, and we say ‘More Lord’?

We say, ‘We need more before we go’. No! No! We haven’t used hardly any of what He’s given us yet. And if you go and it’s quickly used up, great! Because as you use it up you get more, and you use it up, and you get more. That’s how it works!

We haven’t seen hardly any of the signs and wonders that we’re supposed to see yet. Hardly any.

Because we think that the sign and the wonder is instead of the Cross. But the sign and the wonder is “in” the cross.

Then, when we understand the Cross, which is His heart, all the other signs and wonders are the expression of His heart. They are not demonstrations of His power, merely. They’re expressions of His heart.

You know that this was Jesus’ temptation, right at the beginning of His ministry, and at the end, to have it all without the Cross.

For any of you, young people, if you will minister with the poor, everything’s backwards.
You spend a year on these people, and then they rob you of your money. In this ministry, you go backwards. God is faithful, of course, they all come off drugs by the power of the Holy Spirit, but then many of them turn back.

I was sharing this with a church in Taiwan and the pastor came up to me afterwards and said, ‘How can this be? We’ve never heard this teaching before.’ And I said, ‘It’s the way Jesus did it.’

Look at Him. At the end of three years, what’s He got to show? I mean, he’s had some great Glory meetings and some people got healed, but what’s He got at the end?
Eleven in disarray and one suicide. His group hasn’t multiplied even.

Not until Peter knows the Grace of God, and the power of the Holy Spirit. It’s that Rock the Church is built on; a weak, forgiven Peter knowing the Grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit.

And so few yet in this world have used this explosive mixture of the compassion of Lord with a broken heart, and the power of the Spirit.

It’s what the world waits for.

*Transcribed from Tape 4 in the conference tape set entitled “The Fragrance Of Justice”; VMG, 2005

RE-POST: JACKIE PULLINGER - "THE SIGN OF THE CROSS"

Jackie Pullinger – “The Sign of the Cross”
(Transcribed from “The Fragrance of Justice” Conference tape series)

It seems that there are many of us in the church these days who look at miraculous signs and think, ‘If God would only do them, the whole world would come to Christ’. And they’re hoping that the Holy Spirit will fill a church while we worship, and fill it so full that it will somehow get to the ends of the Earth.

No. If it worked like that, He would not have told us to go! It does not get there by itself. It gets there if you go.

You think Jesus Christ, up there in heaven, couldn’t have done sky writing? Done a few signs and somehow by the power of God we’d all be one?

No.

The miraculous sign upon which all men will be judged was the cross. That is the miraculous sign that the world is waiting for, through us.

There’s this terrible song that we sing called “Lord Let Your Glory Fall”. I don’t know if you sing it, but I get real upset when we sing this song.

I can’t sing that song, especially when they sing it all sweet. You know what the Glory of God is? The Son of God, crushed, voluntarily.

“The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life, only to take it up again.”- John 10:17.

God gives us this same privilege. “Anyone who would follow me must take up his cross, daily.”- Luke 9:23

See? That’s it!

I don’t think the Glory of God is going to get to the ends of the Earth when we sing in church. I mean, it’s not a bad thing to do, to praise His name and bless His heart. But that’s not how the Gospel gets to the Nations.

You see, it isn’t “just” a miraculous sign. The miraculous sign comes through a man.

I think the world has yet to see this. The world has yet to see Christians laying down their lives. They’re singing in church for God to do it again.

I think we’re so rude to God. I mean, He gave us His son, He gave us His Holy Spirit and we say, ‘More, Lord’!

What more can He give? He gave everything, and we say ‘More Lord’?

We say, ‘We need more before we go’. No! No! We haven’t used hardly any of what He’s given us yet. And if you go and it’s quickly used up, great! Because as you use it up you get more, and you use it up, and you get more. That’s how it works!

We haven’t seen hardly any of the signs and wonders that we’re supposed to see yet. Hardly any.

Because we think that the sign and the wonder is instead of the Cross. But the sign and the wonder is “in” the cross.

Then, when we understand the Cross, which is His heart, all the other signs and wonders are the expression of His heart. They are not demonstrations of His power, merely. They’re expressions of His heart.

You know that this was Jesus’ temptation, right at the beginning of His ministry, and at the end, to have it all without the Cross.

For any of you, young people, if you will minister with the poor, everything’s backwards. You spend a year on these people, and then they rob you of your money. In this ministry, you go backwards. God is faithful, of course, they all come off drugs by the power of the Holy Spirit, but then many of them turn back.

I was sharing this with a church in Taiwan and the pastor came up to me afterwards and said, ‘How can this be? We’ve never heard this teaching before.’ And I said, ‘It’s the way Jesus did it.’

Look at Him. At the end of three years, what’s He got to show? I mean, he’s had some great Glory meetings and some people got healed, but what’s He got at the end?
Eleven in disarray and one suicide. His group hasn’t multiplied even.

Not until Peter knows the Grace of God, and the power of the Holy Spirit. It’s that Rock the Church is built on; a weak, forgiven Peter knowing the Grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit.

And so few yet in this world have used this explosive mixture of the compassion of the Lord with a broken heart, and the power of the Spirit.

It’s what the world waits for.

**
Transcribed from Tape 4 in the conference tape set entitled “The Fragrance Of Justice”; VMG, 2005

THE MANY CYBER REALITIES OF KEITH GILES

Besides my main blog at www.KeithGiles.com I've also set up several other blogs and websites to provide free online resources on a variety of topics.

For example:

PovertyInTheOC.com
This website includes statistics on poverty in Orange County, California where I live and also links to various articles on "How To Start a Ministry to the Poor in Your Community" as well as links to other non-profits and organizations that serve the poor.

OCHouseChurch.com
This website links to a handful of other house churches in the Orange County area and also includes links to articles on house church, links to other voices and blogs in the house church/simple church/organic church community and provides info on how to find a house church, or start one of your own, in the Orange County area.

MissionHouseChurch.com
This is the offical blog website for our house church which we've been hosting now for over 3 years. It includes links to our vision and values and a Flckr page with photos and other fun stuff.

Subversive Underground
From December of 2005 (roughly) to March of this year I published a free, weekly e-newsletter called [Subversive Underground]. The archives are still up at this link and you can read articles on spiritual formation, the early church, discipleship, God's heart for the poor, Christianity in culture and more.

NutInTheShell
This blog is where I post my sci-fi, comicbook and "less spiritual" thoughts. It also contains links to my previous life as a comicbook industry journalist, and my brief attempts at writing my own sci-fi graphic novels.

PlasticAnimalStudios.com
This is a museum site showcasing all my great sci-fi story concepts and sample pages on a handful of projects I had going long before I shut it all down and started this blog.

ParabolicJournal.com
This was a grand social experiment I conducted after being inspired by the 1000 Journals project. We even got a link from those guys to our travelling journal (and hosted another journal's pages) which gave us a lot of exposure.

The concept was to sign people up to receive the journal by mail. They would have a few weeks to add pages and scan them for posting online and then I would tell them who to mail the journal to next. It was great fun and my plan was to subversively communicate Kingdom truth to people in an "under the radar" fashion.

There are some really amazing pages on here but be careful around Journal #7 when you get to the pages of Dutch Smiles. They're not very work-safe...but they're quite thought-provoking, I think.

I have no idea where most of these actual journals are now but I do have the first one and the "Random" journal is in my friend Lito's hands (who was also our web-monkey).

Non-Con
Back in March of 2008 I put together a one-day event called the "Non Conference" with Jackie Pullinger and David Ruis. It was a small gathering of just 100 people. We shared meals, enjoyed simple worship times, and engaged in dialog (rather than monologue) with one another. It was better than I could've imagined thanks to God showing up in a big, big way.

You can download MP3's of our sessions here or on the Non-Con site and there are a few testimonials on the site too.

Will I ever do another one? Only if God really, really wants me to.


**
As you can see I often get ideas and create websites to provide information and resources for people on subjects I am passionate about.

Other than here I mainly hang out online at Facebook and Twitter.

Hope to see you in cyberspace.

Peace,
kg

THE LEAST OF THESE?

CLICK TO EXPAND IMAGE

URGENT: PLEASE FORWARD TO EVERYONE!

DISCLAIMER: Please read the following article VERY CAREFULLY before you do anything
at all. There is more going on here than meets the eye. You have been forewarned. -

As most of us are aware, there is a new Congress in session at the moment. With this new influx of Congressmen and Senators will no doubt come a changing of the guard that will require us as Christians to be vigilant as never before.

This is why what I am about to tell you is SO CRITICAL for each of us. I'm tempted to ask everyone one of you to read what I write here and to forward this to EVERYONE IN YOUR ADDRESS BOOK right away. (Especially if you "really" love Jesus).

But, what I'm about to tell you is SO ALARMING, it could seriously threaten Church in America forever.

There is new legislation in motion, at the earliest possible stage, which I need to let everyone know about now before it gets out of our control.

First, many of you are already aware that there are forces out there that threaten to take away the non-profit status of Christian Churches in America whenever messages of a political nature are delivered from the pulpit. As desperate as this is, there is a new development brewing now that is EVEN WORSE.

There are people who want to propose legislation that would challenge the non-profit status of any Christian Church simply based on whether or not that Church actually gives a significant percentage of its funds back to the community, as most other "non-religious" non-profits are required to do.

WHAT THIS MEANS is that your church could be in DANGER OF LOSING ITS NON-PROFIT STATUS simply because little of the tithe money goes to help out those poor families who live around the community. EVEN IF THEY DON'T ATTEND YOUR CHURCH!

Of course, there are plenty of churches in America that do care for the poor in their community. They pass out free groceries, they provide free oil changes for single Moms, they host after-school programs for kids in the area at no-charge, etc. Churches who are already "giving back" to the community in this way and serving others the way Jesus would would have NOTHING TO FEAR!

However, if a church in the community were to spend 70%, 80%, or even 99% of its tithe on ITSELF, it would be in danger of losing that non-profit status and would have to pay taxes JUST LIKE ALL OTHER LARGE CORPORATIONS.

This means that a church spending most of the tithe for salaries, or a new building, or the new flat-screen plasma televisions for the announcements in the nursery, or the Starbucks Coffee bar at the back of the Church, or the new carpet, etc., would have to justify their non-profit status on the basis of whether or not they were actually performing any actual "service" to the poor around them. If they couldn't demonstrate a tangible connection between their church and the community around them, their NON-PROFIT STATUS would be REVOKED FOREVER!

REGARDLESS OF THE FACT that Matthew 25 suggests that Jesus takes our concern for the outcast seriously, this attack on the non-profit status of our big, fat American churches is just NOT FAIR!

We've earned the right to collect as many hundreds of thousands of dollars as we like in the name of Jesus and it should be totally up to us how we spend that money. Especially if it's for our OWN NEEDS, WANTS AND DESIRES.

Just because we're not really involved in the needs of the poor around us, the Church SHOULDN'T BE PUNISHED IN THIS WAY.

Regardless of the fact that the Church in America HAS THE POWER and the ECONOMIC RESOURCES necessary provide affordable housing, long-term community development, and primary health care to everyone who needs it, the US Government should NOT be the one to force this upon us through legal means. That should be left up to a Higher Power.

Even though Universal primary education would cost $8 billion a year, which is about half of what parents in the US spend annually on toys for their children, this has nothing to do with those of us who are called by the name of the One who humbled Himself and surrendered His life to demonstrate the compassion of God to the World, and especially to the least and the lost.

So, if you want to protect your church from this kind of judgement, I urge you to write to your pastors, your elders, your deacons and your church leaders and let them know how you feel about this very serious issue that faces the modern Church in America.

We, the Church in America, are dangerously close to the SIN OF SODOM!

Do you know what the Sin of Sodom is? Read Ezekiel 16: 49:

"Now this is the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were proud and did detestable things before me. Therefore, I did away with them as you have seen."

Obviously, the issue facing the Church in America today is WAY MORE SERIOUS THAN SIMPLY OUR NON-PROFIT STATUS! If the Church were to rise up and spend their money this way, THAT WOULD BE AN AWESOME THING, and yes, a lot of people would probably stop calling us HYPOCRITES and maybe they'd take us seriously when we tell them that Jesus loves them, because we've demonstrated that (just maybe) we love them too.

As you may have guessed, this legislation IS TOTALLY FICITIOUS! I have made up the entire thing with the help of my good friend Jarred Romley who first suggested the concept to me.

I couldn't resist mimicking the style of those alarmist Christian email messages we all get forwarded telling us that we must send it on to everyone we have ever known in order to prove our love for Jesus. Please, also forgive me for all the CAPITAL LETTERS I USED!

Seriously, I think if my friend Jarred were to introduce a Bill like this one to our Congress it might put a fire under our churches to wake up and realize that their Bibles are full of commands to care for the outcast, the poor, and the needy who are all around them. If nothing else, it would create an amazing open dialog in the media between the leaders of the Church, the members of the community, and the man on the street about issues of compassion, Christian charity, and the calling of Jesus to care for the poor as we would care for Him. (see Matthew 25)

Until that legislation comes to pass, I will have to resort to stunts like this to try to wake people up and realize that God's heart is for the poor and that He has taken this issue very seriously.

The truth is, the idea of their church losing its non-profit status is more likely to spur Christians to action than the fact that there are thousands of homeless, and poverty-stricken human beings suffering a few blocks from their front door.

"He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?"- GOD, speaking of King Josiah in Jeremiah 22:16

**
Keith Giles

Cleaning House

I updated links to the Ray Mayhew article "Embezzlement: The Corporate Sin of Contemporary Christianity", the Walter Kirn article "What Would Jesus Do?" and my 3 part interview with Dallas Willard on the left-hand nav bar.

In addition, I updated the link to download the Jackie Pullinger and David Ruis mp3 sermons from last year's Non-Con.

Also added links to Lionel Wood's "The Gospel in 3-D" and Heather and Daniel Cosby's blog.

Note: The Ray Mayhew article is only available as a free PDF which is obtained by emailing me directly at "elysiansky" (at) hotmail dot com with the subject line: "Embezzlement".

FYI- I am randomly accessible at Facebook and Twitter, if you use those.

Blessings,
kg

JACKIE PULLINGER - "THE SIGN OF THE CROSS"

Jackie Pullinger – “The Sign of the Cross”
(Transcribed from “The Fragrance of Justice” Conference tape series)

It seems that there are many of us in the church these days who look at miraculous signs and think, ‘If God would only do them, the whole world would come to Christ’. And they’re hoping that the Holy Spirit will fill a church while we worship, and fill it so full that it will somehow get to the ends of the Earth.

No. If it worked like that, He would not have told us to go! It does not get there by itself. It gets there if you go.

You think Jesus Christ, up there in heaven, couldn’t have done sky writing? Done a few signs and somehow by the power of God we’d all be one?

No.

The miraculous sign upon which all men will be judged was the cross. That is the miraculous sign that the world is waiting for, through us.

There’s this terrible song that we sing called “Lord Let Your Glory Fall”. I don’t know if you sing it, but I get real upset when we sing this song.

I can’t sing that song, especially when they sing it all sweet. You know what the Glory of God is? The Son of God, crushed, voluntarily.

“The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life, only to take it up again.”- John 10:17.

God gives us this same privilege. “Anyone who would follow me must take up his cross, daily.”- Luke 9:23

See? That’s it!

I don’t think the Glory of God is going to get to the ends of the Earth when we sing in church. I mean, it’s not a bad thing to do, to praise His name and bless His heart. But that’s not how the Gospel gets to the Nations.

You see, it isn’t “just” a miraculous sign. The miraculous sign comes through a man.

I think the world has yet to see this. The world has yet to see Christians laying down their lives. They’re singing in church for God to do it again.

I think we’re so rude to God. I mean, He gave us His son, He gave us His Holy Spirit and we say, ‘More, Lord’! What more can He give?

He gave everything, and we say ‘More Lord’?

We say, ‘We need more before we go’. No! No! We haven’t used hardly any of what He’s given us yet. And if you go and it’s quickly used up, great! Because as you use it up you get more, and you use it up, and you get more. That’s how it works!

We haven’t seen hardly any of the signs and wonders that we’re supposed to see yet. Hardly any.

Because we think that the sign and the wonder is instead of the Cross. But the sign and the wonder is “in” the cross.

Then, when we understand the Cross, which is His heart, all the other signs and wonders are the expression of His heart. They are not demonstrations of His power, merely. They’re expressions of His heart.

You know that this was Jesus’ temptation, right at the beginning of His ministry, and at the end, to have it all without the Cross.

For any of you, young people, if you will minister with the poor, everything’s backwards.
You spend a year on these people, and then they rob you of your money. In this ministry, you go backwards. God is faithful, of course, they all come off drugs by the power of the Holy Spirit, but then many of them turn back.

I was sharing this with a church in Taiwan and the pastor came up to me afterwards and said, ‘How can this be? We’ve never heard this teaching before.’ And I said, ‘It’s the way Jesus did it.’

Look at Him. At the end of three years, what’s He got to show? I mean, he’s had some great Glory meetings and some people got healed, but what’s He got at the end?
Eleven in disarray and one suicide. His group hasn’t multiplied even.

Not until Peter knows the Grace of God, and the power of the Holy Spirit. It’s that Rock the Church is built on; a weak, forgiven Peter knowing the Grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit.

And so few yet in this world have used this explosive mixture of the compassion of Lord with a broken heart, and the power of the Spirit.

It’s what the world waits for.

Transcribed from Tape 4 in the conference tape set entitled “The Fragrance Of Justice”; VMG, 2005