“For what it’s worth”

I’m taking time to write these words as an attempt to somewhat fill an obligation. God has so moved in my “Gotham Quest”, and he has so answered prayers and opened doors, that my time spent on this blogsite simply no longer compares. Alas, so few comments, so little affect really being done compared to the “Gotham Vision” God gave me. This blogsite has simply become an interruption to what I need to be doing, but I do need to tie up a few loose ends so as not to leave everyone completely hanging. So for those 2-3 people who are really reading this blog, I will try to answer questions. I’ll try to answer what I can think of now, and then if you have other questions, I” try to respond.

1.) First of all, as I went downtown that night to work out on the steps of our War Monument, (91 steps), I really did encounter a young man just out of college, and he was pacing back and forth looking at his hand and then back to the sky. It was nighttime, but the monument also has lights. It was an eerie set-up in the night with city lights, tall buildings about us, and stars in the sky if you could see them. I had planned to elaborate on the whole experience had I wrote the details of this story, but even now I have a neighbor waiting on me to take a chainsaw and help cut limbs from his damaged trees. (We had a bad storm.) God has used the storms, dogs, and various things to open ministry in my own neighborhood. OOPs, now I’ mixing two questions.

Anyway, God opened a door for me to speak to the young man pacing, and it turned out he was practicing a speech. He wanted to become a motivational speaker and he had his first event, a class of graduating high schoolers, he was speaking to the next day. We talked for a good twenty minutes about God, vision, Bible, and motivation. I prayed with him before I left, and yes, it was also a very good workout. But ever since I embraced the “Gotham Vision” and watered it in prayer and action, God has been opening doors. I’ve had at least 3 encounters on that War Memorial.

2.) The vision has become one of “Neighborhoods”, my own, and others. God showed me a different way to do “Home Groups”, small groups, life groups, or whatever you want to call them. First of all, you need to find that special person in a neighborhood who is willing to be “Priestlike” to those around him. In other words, “Do What Jesus Would Do”. Once you find one of these rare individuals, you impart vision and begin a small Bible study/prayer group in their home, but here is the difference…YOU DO NOT INVITE ANYONE FROM YOUR CHURCH TO YOUR GROUP, UNLESS THEY LIVE IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD!

The key is that you only reach out to those in your neighborhood, they become your main ministry, and you look to find others willing to do the same thing. This is why I’m about to take my chainsaw and spend my Saturday morning getting to know my neighbor who I barely know. Before this day is over, we will be “connected”, and then he will let me speak to him about Jesus, eternity, Bible, faith, God, church, little by little it will come. There must be relationship, and the phrase, “Hi, I’m your neighbor”, still works in America.

3.) I’m also back to working on writing a book. My first book, “The Last Christmas of Jonah Joe”, continues to touch people’s lives and is now in a few church libraries, but God has me writing another story called “God’s Bounty Hunters”. I’m loving it, but it requires time, and I could be writing those words right now, rather than these that I can only access that 2-3 people might read. It just doesn’t compare. Last week, in another neighborhood where I have found a willing Bounty Hunter Priest, I had the privilege of sharing the Gospel message with a young man whose house caved in from the storm and now has temporarily moved into the house of our Priest. His girl friend has moved in too. So, because I am in this neighborhood, not in the church box, but in this neighborhood, I now have three I am sharing God’s word with, and we have only been there one month. It started with “the One”.

4.) The vision is to: “Go forth…in weakness.” Paul said, when I am weak, then am I strong. It is a paradox. That is why we don’t understand it and fail to do it. God makes it work because it is his way and not ours. He sent the seventy “forth” in “weakness”, as lambs amidst wolves. I don’t have time to completely get into this because I am busy living it. I am not just a crusader for Christ, but I am a “Caped” crusader, because as I recognize my weakness, but still obey and go forth in faith, God Covers me. That “Covering” is an anointing that all the great witnesses of God has known. It is the power to be a witness. It is becoming the Priest we are called to be, going forth to save our city, one person, and one neighborhood at a time. The Ripple Effect. I have written about this. There is much written on this site if there are those who are curious.

5.) Batman said, “Gotham needs me.” Jesus says the same about your neighborhood and city, but we must be “Caped” if God is to use us. PRAYER is key to our priesthood. My house shall be known as a house of prayer, Jesus said. Then we go forth not in our strength, but in our weakness. We do not resist God, but we are weak towards him. We are weak towards our God so we can be strong in our God. I embraced this Batman metaphor, this Gotham vision, and now my life is full of adventure and passion as I see the enemy being exposed and pushed back around me. It is a heroic lifestyle for those who understand the true heart of God. This vision has been a tremendous spiritual blessing in my life.

6.) I may try to report in here once in a while when I get the chance, but for me, the action is out in the streets. People are dying out there. Jesus came to be with the sick. He leaves the 99 to go to the one. If you’re one of the 99 and you don’t feel God like you use to? He’s probably waiting for you to leave the 99, of which you are one, and help him reach another ONE. In a sense, his strong presence has left you to find the ONE, because you are now part of the 99, but he invites you to join him in that great adventure to save your city.

I’m not even going to check this article for mistakes, it is what it is. I’m anxious to get out there. For the 2-3 faithful readers I have had, thank-you so much for your encouragement. If you have a blogsite reaching and affecting people, keep doing it, but for me, I seem to be more effective “out there”. I am still writing, but it looks like “book form” has become my goal. I love the things God has done with “Jonah Joe”. I give them out as God leads me and the feedback has been awesome. Be blessed everyone, and love your neighbor as yourself. I’ll drop a line from time to time if God leads me to do so.