INFO RE. MY PUBLIC SPEAKING PROGRAM

         When I’ve been asked I have presented teachings and healing Practicum in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Arizona as well as various interdenominational groups in France. These have been well received as evidenced by recalls and recommendations to other groups.
        The sole purpose of these talks has been, and is, to share some of the healings I have experienced and/or witnessed and insights into personal understandings of Jesus’ call to follow Him.
Most often these have been successful with groups from 4 to 50 attendees although I have addressed up to 1500 persons on one occasion.
Some of the topics are             Unconditional Love
                                              Forgiveness and Repentance
                                              Baptism in the Holy Spirit practicum
                                              Charisms what are they, who needs them?
                                              Laying on of Hands to heal practicum
                                              In God’s image
                                              Healing Erroneous core beliefs practicum
                                              Healing our family tree practicum  
Grieving a loss PUBLISHED“Nobody Told Me” a booklet.Things I learned grieving loss of my wife.
                  Some of these lesson plans and presentations I’ve published as blogs.
                  I try to limit most talks to 30 minutes with questions after.
     Practicums require longer sessions as we have the attendees put in practice the teaching of that day. We suggest allocating 2 to 3 hours same day depending on number of attendees and the material to be covered.
       The venues have been halls, conference rooms and church facilities as well as private homes.
        The talks can be in English or French.
      Attendees of any and all religions or non-believers are welcomed.

    We can host one day retreats at our home in a peaceful desert setting. Room to relax from the daily cares while viewing breathtaking sunrises and sunsets. We choose to call our home the Trinity Embassy Compound. (based on 2 Corinthians 5;20). Limited to 10 or less persons.
    Please feel free to drop me a Comment to this blog if you would like more information or wish to explore if my public speaking program would be of value to you.
Lambassadeur

SAW CLEARLY

This vision in my mind came to me a short while after I prayed that I might see Jesus more clearly.

        I saw Him clearly today. I followed the crowd wondering what was attracting all these people laughing and jeering. Jostling each other to get up front, I felt as if there was a riot about to break out. I pushed myself to the front and there He was. It was just another criminal going to the cross. But He was different. The other two seemed in fairly good physical condition but not Him.
It was as if he was epileptic or drunk. He could not stand straight and was flailing his arms about to catch hold of anyone or anything for support. His legs were like those of a straw man. His knees were too weak to support his body. The guards were not helping at all. Rather they were pushing him from one to the other like a ball in a pinball machine. When he fell they yanked him up to continue their game. Not one of us in the crowd reached out to help him. Rather, the raucous laughter and jeering got worse, The more He lurched from side to side trying to stay on His feet the more they called Him names. I too, laughed at some of the shouts that seemed funny. Suddenly the game was over. The guards grabbed Him and began to pull the clothes of Him. It was then I saw all the blood seeping out of the cuts and bruises as the scabs stayed stuck to the clothing. They each laid claim to whatever piece they had grabbed. The full-length robe they threw aside as they agreed to roll the die for it.
Wearing only a crown of thorns, his naked his body convulsed every which way. Floundering about, try as he may he could not still the movements. The guards held him up as they stood him in front of the cross that lay where he had last fallen. In the crudest of words they mocked him as the naked king of the Jews.
Then came the moment, frozen in my memory, that will haunt me as long as I live. For an instant he turned his head and our eyes met. His were watery but clear. They said, “It’s alright, You can’t do anything to stop this. I forgive you.” He was looking only at me-----only at me.
The trance was broken when the guards threw him backwards on the cross and held his uncontrolled limbs as they nailed him to the cross. As they raised the cross and dropped it into the pre dug hole, his body was still convulsing uncontrollably. Now his arms and legs only shivered as nails held them stretched out.
I understood. The flogging and beatings he had taken were so sever that the pain eventually destroyed all nerve mechanisms such that no thought control signals reached their destinations.
As they yanked His clothes off of Him where was the man we see in icons and paintings, standing tall and still with the perfect hair and trimmed beard? This man should have died from the torture long before he climbed that hill with the aid of a man forced to help him.
Now I realized, such a death would not have been seen by the multitude and any claims of his resurrection would not have carried any validity. No. He had to be seen dead hanging on the cross.
By sheer dint of will, He had forced his body to live until he chose to say, “It is finished.“ Now, all saw him die on a cross. Friends placed him in a tomb and those who had forced his death placed guards so that no one could steal his corpse and claim he had risen.
Now, those who saw him die and return alive three days later in their midst, could believe.

WRATH and MERCY

In the last few months I’ve received one or two e-mails per day that voice serious anger at the Federal government, the congress, and the President. Though I agree with many of the complaints, I am becoming uncomfortable with the harshness and the sense of hatred that is coming into my view and hearing if you would. I am trying to separate whatever truth may be in the mail from the rancorous tone that permeates the message. When I finish responding to some of these, I’m hard put to regain a sense of peace and harmony.
I found two places in the New Covenant that have caused me to reflect on the proper position of a Christian vis-à-vis the authority of government.
St Paul in the 13^th chapter of Romans verse 1 writes, “Let every person be subordinate to the higher authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been established by God.”
After developing this premise he ends at verse 7,” Pay to all their dues, taxes to whom taxes are due, toll to whom toll is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.”
St Peter in his first letter 2;13-17 writes, ”Be subject to every human institution for the Lord’s sake whether it be to the king as supreme or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evil doers and the approval of those who do good. He ends with, “Give honor to all, love the community, fear God, honor the king.”
I understand these passages to mean that it is the position of authority that deserves our respect and clothes the person with honor. God creates the positions of authority and individuals fill them. Mere humans can never measure up to the awesome tasks of making perfect decisions which will please everyone.
I am left with the realization that I must get past the personalities, likes or dislikes. Love my neighbor as myself calls me to pray blessings on the rulers and to petition Jesus to send the Holy Spirit to counsel and guide those in authority over me.
What of the anger that rises in me when I see dishonesty and lack of integrity in the rulers. Jesus was angry at the money changers in the temple.
He seemed furious at the Pharisees and Scribes as described in Mathew 23; 1-36. Time after time Jesus castigates them saying ’ “Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.” These two places in scripture give us a glimpse of how repulsed God is at the presence of outright evil and blatant disdain for his authority. This anger is totally justified and if Jesus had not controlled his Godly anger against man-kinds disobediences His wrath could have destroyed man-kind the way he did with Sodom.
Our country needs to beg Father God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit for forgiveness and Holy Mercy for the soul of all the aborted infants cry out for vengeance.
All other evils in our country cannot be rectified until we repent of killing generations of God’s creatures. God will use those in authority as instruments to vent his wrath and punishment on our country until we repent.
                                                         Lambassadeur

INTRODUCTION

        Good day to you good reader. Welcome to my new blogging site as a vehicle to publish the articles, essays, and lesson plans I have generated in the last decade or so. I believe blogging will reach more people then if I publish them in book form.
        I have been blessed with opportunities to speak in various settings in the USA and in France to groups of ten to two or three hundred attendees. Examples, two months of classes on prayer to the student body of a French High school, six-week course on Healing and the Laying on of Hands to a Mennonite congregation, and talks to ecumenical conferences.
       I am a Certified Spiritual Director from the School of Charismatic Spiritual Direction, Pecos, New Mexico.
      These writings reflect things that have had a positive effect in my life. They have come to me in many ways, meditations, readings, daily life experiences, prayer times and teachers.
      I have posted two examples so you may get a flavor of the writing style and varied subject matter. I will infrequently intersperse fictional short stories I write as a change of pace.
                                May these blogs bring only good to you and yours.

                               LAMBASSADEUR

A CASE FOR JOSEPH

Whatever happened to Joseph, Mary’s husband, after they found twelve year old Jesus in the temple. Actually we know nothing of this family during the 18 years until Jesus begins His public ministry. I submit these thoughts for your assessment.
I put Joseph at 20 plus or minus 2 years old when he married Mary. He probably was in his fifties when Jesus left at 30. Certainly young enough to be alive. Yet not a word about his presence at the Cana wedding or at any other public appearance by Jesus.
We all know that Joseph accepted Mary’s pregnancy story because of a dream. Implicit is the fact that he knew that the gossip-mongers would devour every rumor. Even the best of friends were not privy to the details of the angelic apparition. The man Joseph awoke every morning of his married life knowing that he had the burden of raising a child that was not his, a child that was messiah God.
For thirty years St Joseph chose to stay out of the limelight. He lived the life of provider, teacher, supportive and loving spouse. He ,more than any other human being, chose to live humbly knowing full well that Jesus was God incarnate. He knew the awesome responsibility that Mary bore.
When Jesus went public the parents knew that it was a path that would end in public shame and cursed death on the cross. Joseph could not go public as Jesus was professing that He and Father God were one. He could not explain that Marie had conceived by the Holy Spirit’s direct intervention. Condemned to a life of silence with only his faith in God’s revelation to him in a dream, Joseph demonstrated the ultimate perseverance and patience until he died. I don’t know that he might have lived into his 60’s. I would like a source which could say how long Joseph lived.
Surely St Joseph deserves to be our patron saint of humility and perseverance as we try to fulfill the potential and destiny Jesus has chosen uniquely for each of us.

ETERNAL MAN

        As Trinitarian men and women we are also Eternal creatures. From the instant we were created in our mother’s womb we were created to exist eternally. Implicit in this fact is that we are living in eternity at this very moment.
       We have been deluded into thinking that this earthly life will pass away at death and only then do we go into eternity. With this way of thinking came the teachings that we needed to earn our way into a better eternal life.
     The truth is that the physical body dies and deteriorates but every human being, Soul, Mind and Spirit, good or bad, lives eternally from the moment of conception. This also is how we are created in God’s image. He has always been and will always be, we were created at a finite moment in eternity and as eternal beings we will always be.
Our awareness of being eternal illuminates every moment with greater importance. Our every word, action, thought is embed in eternity forever. This realization can move us to unwarranted egotism, fear, hopelessness and self absorption.
I believe that when first created, man’s body was created to live forever. This is consistent with God’s commandment to Adam “You are free to eat from any of the trees in the garden except the “tree of knowledge of good and bad“. From that tree you shall not eat; the moment you eat from it you are surely doomed to die.” (genesis 2;16) This implies if you do not eat from this tree you will live forever.
Lest we curse Adam for tasting this fruit and causing us to die, we should realize that sooner or later someone would have tasted it and doomed us to death. It might have been me ,or ????you. Eventually man had to verify that God meant what He said. Therein lies the cause of all mankind’s woes, pride filled arrogance, to refuse to believe what God says.
What we need to grasp is the fact that we have already begun our lifetime in eternity. Every new day is one more finite part of God’s eternity in which we have the privilege of existing.
Each new day is one which is newly created and never existed before since the first day that the universe was created. There are similarities to other days we have lived but that new day has happenings and experiences we never lived before nor may never again. For example, running into an old friend from years gone by that we never see again for the rest of our life.
If we realize that all the previous days we have lived are merely tiny steps of our eternity , then each new day takes on enormous significance. It is sacred, virgin life and we get to step into God’s grand eternal plan. Every moment is new and can be felt with new purpose, and hope, and direction. We are on the magical road of achieving impossible dreams, of conquering insurmountable obstacles, of visions that fill us with energy, excitement, hope. It’s a new day. It’s a new life. And, I, you, we, are in God’s perfect plan for eternity, forever.
We need never fear for Jesus has paid the price for our ticket to eternal life in the presence of LOVE.
Eternal Triune God has eternal triune man and woman in the palm of His hands. Alleluia!