Trust Without Borders In The Storms Of Life - by Lonnie Ellis

Everyone will experience storms in life. Some are self-inflicted for wrong choices we make. Some come from the enemy of our soul trying to kill steal and destroy. Some are God-created to remove things that keep us from our Kingdom identities and keep us bound within our earthly identities.

Storms may come in many forms; the loss of a job, the loss of a promotion, the loss of a home, the loss of a close friendship, the death of a child, the death of a spouse, the death of a parent, the betrayal of a spouse, the death of a marriage, the death of a dream and much more.

No matter the cause of the storm(s), God wants to meet us in them and WALK WITH US through them, in the midst of all the pain, suffering and loss. He wants to reveal Himself to us in ways our hearts don’t even know are possible.

In the storm(s) we tend to pray to God (and we should), but in the back of our minds - we have predetermined how WE want God to respond and how WE want God to make the outcome look. At times we pray: “God get me out of this storm!” When we do this - it is because we don’t yet grasp the fullness of our identity as God’s son or daughter - seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Instead, we’re living from an earth-bound identity.

“Trust Without Borders” means no matter how tough the storm - we learn to trust that God has the best path and outcome for us and for our lives. He will touch us through our storm(s). Then we begin to look like and represent His son Jesus on this earth from heaven’s perspective (our Kingdom Identity).

He wants to take us from victim to victorious.
He wants to turn our mess into a message.
He wants to take our test and turn it into a testimony. He wants to give us beauty for ashes; we just have to be willing to let go of the ashes.

Trust Without Borders is part of the journey on The Road Less Traveled

Love God With All Of Your - Mind, Heart, Strength, Soul by Pastor Todd Lout

We are CREATED to love Him in four spheres of life. Our heart represents our emotions. Our soul represents our identity. Our mind represents our thoughts and our strengths represent our resources. He says we will love Him this way BECAUSE He loves us this way!



This is a commandment but also a declaration. We pampered saints sometimes don’t like to be told what to do. God is a perfect Father, though, and He's telling us "This is true about you." If we submit to this commandment, this truth, this appropriate response to His love toward us, then it becomes a freeing, life-giving declaration. This is first priority because God knows that if this is in place, everything else will be grace-filled and so on. This reality will have the greatest impact on our heart, over any other thing in this Earth lifetime.

We do need to put our involvement into this. We take intentional steps to make the most of this declaration. (Sort of like saying, “You’re going to be a successful Botanist". That’s a great statement and truth if you’ve got that inclination, but you then need to put energy and time into learning about plants, trees, dirt, water….)

The greatest grace we can receive is the anointing to feel God’s love and to express it. It brings the greatest freedom and has the greatest reward. Let's turn the focus of our life from what we are to DO to what we are to BECOME. Our greatest calling shouldn't be the size of our ministry, buisness, bank account, etc. It should be the size of our heart. Everything else follows.

*All Our Heart

We love God with our emotions, our affections, which are the very impulse of desire that affects our decisions. We have a significant role in determining how our emotions develop over time. We can “set” our love or affections on anything that we choose. Our emotions eventually follow whatever we se ourselves to purse. As we change our mind, the Spirit changes our heart (emotions).

Because he has set his love (heart) upon Me, therefore I will deliver him. I will set him on high because he has known My name. Psalm 91:14

*All Our Mind

We fill our mind with that which inspires love for God instead of what diminishes it. Our mind is the doorway to our inner man that greatly affects our capacity to love. Much of our life takes place in our mind.

The language of the human spirit is images or pictures. Our mind is an internal movie screen that continually shows us pictures. It is like a camera that stores our memoires.

It's a vast universe inside of us that will never ever be turned off. We cannot shut down the images in our mind, but we can direct them by MEDITAING on God’s Word. We can replace dark thoughts with new ones, rewriting the script of the movie that we continually watch inside.

We love God with our mind by taking the time and effort to come into agreement with the truth about Him and His purposes. This involves refusing lies about His ways and His heart as tender Father and passionate King.

*All Our strength

This is to love God with our natural resources (time, money, energy, talents, words and influence). We express our love for God in the way we use our resources. The normal way to use them is to increase our personal comfort and honor.

God loves for us to express our love to Him by investing our strengths into our relations with God and His purposes. By doing this we sow our strengths into God’s bank. He multiplies and then returns our investments back to us. However, He does it in His own timing and way.

“Your Father, Who sees in secret, will reward you openly. “(Matthew 6:18)

“My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)

*All Our Soul

We establish our identity in our relationship with God instead of in our accomplishments and in the recognitions we receive from people. Our identity is determined by the way we define our success and value and thus, how we see ourselves.

God’s love for us is what determines our personal worth. We've got to define our success as being ones who are loved and chosen by God and who love Him in return.

We are to be anchored in this truth as the basis of our success and worth, rather than in our accomplishment, recognition, possessions or relationships. Our identity must be established on being loved by God and in loving Him back, instead of on our accomplishments or failures.

Our confession is “I am loved by God and I am a lover of God, therefore I am successful.” Burn-out does not come from working hard, but from working with a wrong spirit. When we work for success we get burned out. When we work from success our spirit is strengthened! As we change the way we define success, we will love God much better because we will have much less emotional traffic inside our heart and mind.

No more false identity in strengths / accomplishments!

Here's to full confidence in the grace of God!!

Resurrection Celebration! This Saturday, April 4th, 6 pm

This Saturday night at Blazing Fire, we are going to tell the final week of Jesus' life, death and resurrection through a special, extended time of worship and reading of Scriptures. Jesus' death and resurrection is the central event in all of creation and all of humanity. We have eternity to ponder the magnitude of all that transpired for us in those three days and we will need it to be able to worship Jesus adequately!

This is perhaps my all time favorite painting of the triumph of Jesus' resurrection--by Ron DiCianni. It's hard to see all the amazing detail in this small version (it's orginal size is a 12' by 40' mural!), but here is the artists description of this epic, eternal moment captured on a canvass:

"In addition to kneeling angels and fainted Roman guards, I incorporated the concept of the 'great cloud of witnesses' from Hebrews 12:1 by showing the tomb surrounded by jubilating heroes of the faith. These biblical notables include Moses, David, Isaiah, and Abraham on the right of Christ and Elijah, Noah, Esther, John the Baptist, and Daniel on His left. Of all the figures, the three kneeling are David, Esther, and Daniel — royalty bowing to the greatest of all kings!

"Now let me draw your attention to some elements in the mural that you may miss at first glance. Notice the rock beginning to crack under Christ's feet due to the earthquake and the 'keys of death and hell' (Revelation 1:18) tied on Christ's belt. On the upper right of the painting is the remnant of the place where Jesus was earlier crucified, Mount Calvary, also known as Golgotha or the place of the skull. You can also see the hint of a rainbow above as the same promise God gave after the Flood; it still stands the test of time. Of course I'd be remiss if I did not point out the part of the mural that matters most: Christ emerging from the tomb victorious and alive!

"It seems that over the centuries every artist has longed to paint a definitive subject that would stand the test of time and draw the viewer into the scene. For Michelangelo, it was the Creation of Adam which he did for the Sistine Chapel. For Rembrandt van Rijn, it was the scene of The Prodigal Son. For me, it is the Resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ, as this one act of history separates Christianity from every other religion, philosophy, and dogma. This event not only authenticates Christ's nativity and crucifixion but also legitimizes every word Jesus ever said concerning Himself and His relationship to God.

"Although some may ignore the resurrection at their peril, nobody can deny that it is a historically and theologically proven fact beyond doubt. My hope is that as this mural is installed, many will be confronted with the scene of the Resurrection and make the decision that Jesus Christ is worthy of being called their Lord and Savior." -- Ron DiCianni

Titus 3:3-7

3 We were slaves to sensual cravings and pleasures; and we spent our lives being spiteful, envious, hated by many, and hating one another. 4 But then something happened: God our Savior and His overpowering love and kindness for humankind entered our world; 5 He came to save us. It’s not that we earned it by doing good works or righteous deeds; He came because He is merciful. He brought us out of our old ways of living to a new beginning through the washing of regeneration; and He made us completely new through the Holy Spirit, 6 who was poured out in abundance through Jesus the Anointed, our Savior. 7 All of this happened so that through His grace we would be accepted into God’s covenant family and appointed to be His heirs, full of the hope that comes from knowing you have eternal life.

So Proud of my BF Fam! by Pastor Suzanne Lokker

A couple of weeks ago during a Blazing Fire Saturday worship service, it was such an honor and privilege to stand up with you—your acknowledgement of your victories so filled up my encourager tank! My hope increased and my faith got a huge boost as one by one we all stood up to give testimony to the power and love of God in our lives! We are so a sign of hope to each other and to the world!

Just to recap: I encouraged you to stand up if in the past week, and even for the shortest instance of time,

* you could claim a victory over the enemy

* you walked in wholeness—where the truth of your being matched the ways of your being

* even though you were going through a difficult time, you could still say, “I get to love you, Jesus, through whatever comes.”

* you could say, “Just keep me steady here.”

* during worship, you opened your heart as we sang, “Lord, I know you love me” and let these words go deep into your spirit

* you “Let love win!”

We need to celebrate all these victories in each others’ lives! One of the most profound victories for me was to watch as you stood up and celebrated you. It’s one thing to have someone observe that you are developing more of God’s character in your life, but it’s gigantically impactful when you observe and acknowledge that change in yourself! As you become the brilliant treasure you are designed to be, the way you share God’s transforming love, as only you can, becomes a beacon of hope in the world.

OH, YEAH! YAY, GOD!!

“You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven."

Matthew 5:14-16 (The Message Bible)

Covenant of Belonging to our Blazing Fire Family by Pastor Brent Lokker

Last Saturday, I shared about the Covenant of Belonging to our Blazing Fire Family. Any time we talk about intentionality going deeper in relationship with others, there's a going to be some levels of anxiety to work through because, let's face it, all of us have been hurt by people we've been close to and trusted.

However, we (the elders of Blazing Fire Church) also know that God has been leading us to this conclusion: His heart of covenant love for us was always meant to be shared with one another. Choosing to belong to one another in covenant relationships is a healthy foundation for trust to grow as we learn how to care for and honor each other.

To choose to enter into a Covenant of Belonging to our BF Family isn't something to take lightly, but it also doesn't have to remain scary as we understand the Lord's heart and intentions for us to belong to one another. Covenant does not mean that we agree on everything. If that were true, no two people on the planet could ever be in a covenant relationship with each other. We are using the term “covenant” as a choice to stay connected with each other in a way that brings beneficial, positive changes over the course of those relationships—It is an agreement with God that we belong, not only to Him, but to one another.

If you were unable to attend Blazing Fire this past Saturday, especially if you consider us to be your family, please take the time to listen to the message here:

http://blazingfire.podbean.com/e/brent-lokker-covenant-relationships/

And here is the document that the elder team took great care in crafting to be as clear as possible about what we are inviting you to take part in:

http://blazingfire.org/covenant-of-belonging-with-our-blazing-fire-family

Blazing Fire Church will continue to warmly welcome anyone who simply wants to come to our worship services and enjoy the presence of God with us. For those, however, who desire to belong to our Blazing Fire family in a committed relationship, we invite you to enter into a covenant of belonging with us. Genuine love and commitment is risky because we are learning to open up our hearts to each other, but we believe the reward of living wholeheartedly with each other is worth the risk!

The amazing, life-giving journey we've been on with so many of you is about to take another leap forward! Every time we choose to go with God's plan, no matter how unsettling it may feel in the moment, good things happen.


If, after listening to the podcast and reading the Covenant of Belonging to our Blazing Fire Family you desire to belong in a much more intentional way, you can let us know by e-mailing us at info@blazingfire.org. We will communicate back with you how best to proceed.

With Much Love & Excitement for Where God Continues to Lead Us,

                    

Our Vision by Pastor Brent Lokker

Last Saturday, I shared a fresh vision for our Blazing Fire family that celebrates the faithful journey God has taken us on for the past 13 years and looks forward with great eagerness to His purposes for our continued journey together. (you can listen to the podcast and see the presentation slides here: http://blazingfire.podbean.com/e/blazing-fires-mission-vision-brent-lokker/)

As a teaser, let me just say that God's fiery passionate love is at the core of everything. And as we see red hearts all around us on this Valentine's weekend, I want to remind you that just as God's love took action on our behalf through Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, so too our love must look like something. When Paul gave love a definition in 1 Corinthians 13, he didn't say anything about emotional warm fuzzies (though I believe our emotions are a part of love), but he said love looks like this:


Love is patient with people. Love is kind.

There is no envy in love; there are no proud claims; there is no conceit.

Love never does the graceless thing; never insists on its rights,
never irritably loses its temper;
never nurses its wrath to keep it warm.

Love finds nothing to be glad about when someone goes wrong,
but it is glad when truth is glad.

Love can stand any kind of treatment;
love’s first instinct is to believe in people;
love never regards anyone or anything as hopeless; nothing can happen that can break love’s spirit.

Love lasts forever.

I'm extremely grateful for a family where we can experience God's presence together, where we can explore the supernatural ways of God's Spirit together and where we can learn how to love each other well. When love looks like something, the world will take notice. Thank you for choosing to go on this journey with us!

Pastor Brent Lokker

On Saturday, February 28th, we'll be sharing about our Covenant of Belonging to the Blazing Fire Family. I hope you can make it!

Choosing Connection as a Family by Pastor Karena Lout

Last Saturday I talked about our core value “Choosing Connection as a Family of God.” Blazing Fire is not a business or a place for strangers to gather each week without really being known. It’s a family. We may not have been able to choose the families we were born into, but we get to choose each other. Does that mean we’re always going to agree or that being in relationship is going to be easy? Not always. But as we grow, we realize the value of staying connected to each other even when things are difficult.

Sometimes our pain wants to take the driver’s seat and can cloud our vision. When that happens, disconnection and isolation seem really tempting. It’s gonna take courage and a tender heart to choose connection in the face of fear. There is nothing passive about it. Colossians 3:2 says, “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died and your life is hidden with Christ.” The verb“set” in Greek means to make an ongoing decision. As connection with each other becomes our goal, we learn to make an ongoing decision in our hearts to choose love instead of disconnecting. I want to encourage you that God’s endless supply of grace will empower you to make connection a priority!

Our Father’s intention from the beginning of time was to have a family. I feel extremely blessed to call you my family (my tribe) and I’m grateful I get to grow in deeper relationship with you.

With love and appreciation for you, Karena




This Saturday, Feb. 7th, we’ve indicated it was our desire to present to you these three things:

1) A fresh perspective on the Vision of Blazing Fire and how you might see yourself in helping us fulfill our vision.

2) Presenting to you a “Covenant of Belonging to the Blazing Fire Family” along with opportunities to process the information in a smaller setting over the coming weeks.

3) An update on the building search for our Blazing Fire family to have a place of our own where God can be Himself!

When we originally chose Feb. 7th as the date of this presentation, we were going to cover points 2 & 3 above. However, in the process of preparing, God awakened our hearts in a fresh way to His purposes for Blazing Fire (point #1 above) that we wanted to add to the other two.

It recently became clear that this is far too much to absorb in one night and far too important to “fly” through. Therefore, this Saturday, Feb. 7th, we will cover our Vision and Building Update and on Saturday, Feb. 28th, we will present the “Covenant of Belonging to the Blazing Fire Family.”

I so appreciate being on this exciting, challenging and rewarding journey with you!

Pastor Brent